


BY HIMSELF 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDD17TfiTS3H 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap..P-!^opyright No. ---- 

sheii Wan^n3 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



JIM WARDNER, 



OF 



WARDNER, IDAHO. 



BY HIMSELF. 

- / 






NEW YORK: 

The Anglo-American Publishing Co. 

1900. 



TWO Copies rm^» 
Library of c©»s^r««% 
Olfllai &f the 

APR 2 - 1900 

fleeter of Copyright^ 



61179 

Copyrighted, igoo, 

by 

The Anglo American Publishing Co, 



SECOND COPY, 



«STJLSS & RIDGE PRINTING CO. \*\ /\ r> ^\ V 



PRESS OF 



NEW YORK. 



fO 



?■ 



5C> 



DEDICATION. 

I have studied longer than a judge in a pet 
dog show as to whom this book should be dedicated, 
and amidst the vast number of associations, loves 
and regrets, I hereby dedicate it, first, to the sweetest 
mother, the truest wife, and the dearest children 
of which it was ever man's honor to be son, husband, 
and father; second, to my ever-living creditors, whose 
longevity is so?ne thing extraordinary, and who, if 
each became a purchaser of this book, would insure 
its circulation ; and third, to the miners of the great 
Northwest, with whom I have been so closely allied 
for many years, sharing with them hopes, anticipations 
and realizations. 



This little flower was taken front the conservatory of Ella 
Wheeler Wilcox and transplanted into my garden of weeds: 

The longer I live and the more I see 

Of the struggle of souls toward the heights above, 
The stronger this truth comes home to me : 

That the Universe rests on the shoulders of love ; 
A love so limitless, deep and broad, 
That men have renamed it and called it— God. 

—New York Journal, 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 




PAGE 


I. 


My Earliest Speculations. - 


I 


II. 


The Anti-Cow-Kicking Milking Stool. 


9 


III. 


Hogs and a Trip to Arizona. - 


13 


IV. 


Mr. Snowball ; the Belcher and Lizzie Bullock 






Mines. ----- 


18 


V. 


Snow-Slides. ----- 


26 


VI. 


The National Candy Bank. - 


29 


VII. 


The Wild Man of Big Hole. 


37 


VIII. 


Deadwood in the Black Hills. 


39 


IX. 


The Golden Summit. - 


47 


X 


Butterine. ----- 


50 


XI. 


The Cceur d'Alene. - 


52 


XII. 


The Bunker Hill and Sullivan. 


54 


XIII. 


Wardner, Idaho. ----- 


67 


XIV. 


Strikes Made by Curious Means. 


74 


XV. 


A Grewsome Awakening. - 


77 


XVI. 


"Shorty." 


78 


XVII. 


Spokane. - - 


80 


XVIII. 


"Dutch Jake." - 


83 


XIX. 


Fairhaven, Washington. - 


88 


XX. 


My Cat Ranch. - 


92 


XXI. 


" Hotel de Bum." - 


97 


XXII. 


" Going to 'Tay All Night." - 


100 


XXIII. 


The Blue Canon Coal Mine. 


102 


XXIV. 


He Was From Eagle City, Idaho. 


104 


XXV. 


Kaslo. ---._. 


106 


XXVI. 


"Scotty." 


112 


XXVII. 


John Todd. 


114 



CHAPTER 




PAGE 


XXVIII. 


A Tribute from Fred. W. Dunn, 


"5 


XXIX. 


Mr. Napier. .... 


- 121 


XXX. 


Africa. - 


123 


XXXI. 


Some Personal Observations on Our 


South 




African Trade. 


- 126 


XXXII. 


Rossland, B. C. 


129 


XXXIII. 


That Railroad Pass. - 


- 132 


XXXIV. 


One on the Doctor. 


134 


XXXV. 


Wardner, B. C. 


- 135 


XXXVI. 


The Loss of the Steamboats. - 


137 


XXXVII. 


Klondike. - 


- 140 


XXXVIII. 


Good-bye. 


143 


Appendix. 


Etireka — Nome ! 


- 145 



CHAPTER I. 

MY EARLIEST SPECULATIONS. 

IF it were possible to instruct the young men of the 
English-speaking world by means of object lessons 
from the experience of others, I believe that this 
autobiography would soon be recognized as one of the 
most valuable text books extant. In recording the in- 
cidents, adventures, business affairs and unique experi- 
ences of a life that has never known idle moments and 
that has, in its feverish haste for gain, invaded nearly 
all countries and all climes, from the northern extremi- 
ties of Alaska to the southern parts of Africa, I shall 
relate only facts and actual personal observations. All 
of the names of the individuals mentioned are genuine, 
and all dates and places are correctly given. 

To those unacquainted with me, who will read this 
book, I will introduce myself by stating that I am the 
" Jim Wardner" after whom the towns of Wardner in 
Idaho and Wardner in British Columbia are named. 

It is generally considered by my most intimate family 
friends that I am a living and incontrovertible proof 
that the old saw, " Blood will tell/' is not to be relied 
upon in estimating the effect of a parent's characteris- 
tics upon his children; for, while I have been one of the 
most persistent and tireless searchers after hidden treas- 
ures in all parts of the world, my good father lived fifty 
consecutive years in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 
and was quite the contrary, being of a very retiring 
disposition. He located in Milwaukee in 1836, and died 
there in 1886. His was the first brick residence built in 
the city now so famous for its beauty and beer, and 
therein I was born, May 19, 1846. My dear mother is 
still alive, at eighty years of age, and notwithstanding 
that she has been confined to her bed since the first in- 
auguration of Grover Cleveland, her mental energies 
and high-strung nerves are still unimpaired. 



2 Jim Wardner. 

As a youth I was exceedingly restless under any kind 
of restraint, cared little for books, loved all animals, and 
developed a disposition to trade and barter with my boy 
companions rather than to indulge in the usual games 
and sports of children. I was but eight years old when 
I one day surprised my mother by confiding to her my 
first great money-making scheme. I had thought over 
the project until I was convinced that I could make more 
money annually upon an original investment of seventy- 
five cents than she had ever dreamed of. I had figured 
out every detail before I presented my proposition to 
my mother and asked her to loan me the necessary cap- 
ital. I assured her I knew where I could buy a very 
beautiful rabbit for seventy-five cents; that the boy who 
owned the rabbit had told me it was a mother rabbit 
and that it would have eight or ten baby rabbits soon, 
each of which would probably be more beautiful and 
valuable than the one I was to purchase. I also told my 
mother that I had been learning all about rabbits from 
the boy owner, and that it would be very easy to increase 
my stock of animals to at least one thousand head by 
the end of the first twelve months, and that the figures 
for the next following year became so large I could not 
calculate them, but that at twenty-five cents each for 
the rabbits I would be awful rich. 

My mother gave me the money; I bought the rabbit ; 
and very soon afterward I had eight young kids to 
admire and take care of. I fitted up a place in our back 
yard and worked industriously and methodically to the 
end I had in view. The young rabbits thrived, and I 
soon found an opportunity to sell a pair for seventy-five 
cents. I repaid the loan to my mother, and felt that I 
had engaged in an interesting and profitable business, 
and that it was all my own. The business thrived and 
grew, and I continued it until I was thirteen years old, 
in the meantime making money enough to buy all my 
school books, and always having on hand much more 
spending money than the average boy among my asso- 
ciates. I soon found out that my original calculations 
did not materialize, and also learned that figures will 
lie more correctly and seductively than any other 
medium of untruth. But my rabbit business was a 
success just the same. 



My Earliest Speculations, 3 

My boy customers were many, and among- them I re- 
call Charlie King as one of the best. And now General 
King-, the heroic soldier and gifted author, if he reads 
these lines, will go back in heart and mind to the sunny, 
happy days when he so admired my best "pink eyes," 
and there was no trace of anything but joy above the 
horizon of our youthful vision. Prof. George H. Peck- 
ham, now distinguished as first among educators in 
Wisconsin, was a good buyer of "bunnies." Among 
my other well-remembered boy customers were W. H. 
Wright, Sam. W. Tallmadge, Harry and Fred. Ludding- 
ton, W. H. Seaman and others ; but of all the boys who 
were my patrons there was one, somewhat older than 
the others, whom I can never forget. His name was 
Bill Plummer and he was the thirteenth and youngest 
son of a good English family that lived in the neighbor- 
hood. Bill had a peculiar personality. He was a quiet 
lad, yet had a faculty of making all the other boys in 
j awe of him without any apparent attempt to exercise 
any authority or control. I had an instinctive dread of 
him which was never clear to mv mind. It was a case 
of : 

" I do not like thee, Dr. Fell ; 

Why it is, I cannot tell ; 

But I do not like thee, Dr. Fell." 

Until I heard that as a young man he had drifted up to 
Virginia City, in Montana, had been elected Sheriff of 
the camp, and was soon afterward hung by the Vigi- 
lantes, who discovered that he was the chief of the road 
agents that infested the new mining district, as well as 
being the duly elected Sheriff. But I doubt if Bill 
Plummer could have avoided that or a worse fate, for 
he was number thirteen on the list. 

My business career of rabbit-raising had been happy 
\ and prosperous ; but when I was thirteen years old I 
gave it up to enter the drug store of I. N. Morton, in 
; Milwaukee, as a clerk and student. I was no more to 
! blame for beginning my career as a druggist at the 
, fatalistic year of my life than was Bill Plummer for be- 
! mg the thirteenth son. I liked the delicate, intricate, 
' and precise nature of my new duties, and as I was of an 
inquisitive turn I made quick progress ; so much so, in- 
deed, that in 1863, when the Thirty-ninth Regiment 



4 Jim Wardner. 

Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, was ready to go to the 
front in the Civil War, I was appointed by Surgeon- 
General E. B. Wolcott to the position of hospital stew- 
ard. We were soon at the front, and the Thirty-ninth 
Wisconsin was stationed on the Hernando Pike, just out 
of Memphis, Tennessee. I got along pretty well for a 
boy of my age, rather liked the authority of my posi- 
tion, and had only one stormy incident during my serv- 
ice. The great Confederate cavalry chief, Forrest, con- 
cluded that his mere handful of men were more than 
a match in dash, daring and deviltry for the considera- 
ble Federal army in and about Memphis. At any rate, 
when our gallant Thirty-ninth heard that Forrest was 
coming down the pike they started like broncos before 
a cloudburst, and ran five miles to safety at Fort Pick- 
ering I had remained to get the sick and convalescent 
into*ambulances ; but before that work was finished I 
concluded that Jim Wardner's personal safety was worth 
much more that any record of heroism that might lead 
to death, and so I quietly disappeared by crawling into 
a big bake-oven. I was well secreted, and remained 
there ten of the longest hours I ever passed before ] 
was sure that I could reach Fort Pickering in safety and 
rejoin the regiment. 

I saved my money while in the army, and after my 
discharge I returned home for a brief visit, and then 
made up my mind that I was old enough and big enough 
to tackle life in New York City. I reached New York 
full of hope, aspirations and confidence. I put up at the 
Western Hotel, on Cortlandt street, and at once began 
looking for a position as druggist. I soon found out 
that all the high-class pharmacies were fully as particu- 
lar about how their clerks parted their hair or curled 
their mustaches as they were about their knowledge and 
experience ; and as I was not quite up to the Eastern 
style just then, I was finally compelled to accept a clerk- 
ship in a drug store located at the then famous (and in- 
famous) " Five Points." I was made night clerk, and 
quickly discovered that my principal work was the sale 
of morphine, opium and certain proprietary medicines. 
The transition from the quiet dignity of Morton's es- 
tablishment in Milwaukee to the surroundings of a night 
clerk's duties in the "Five Points/' New York, was 



My Earliest Speculations. 5 

marked enough to satisfy any craving for incident or 
strange experience that a boy of my age might have had. 

Before I had been long in my new position I found 
that one of our most regular patrons was a big, jovial, 
tremendously profane and equally influential man of the 
neighborhood, named John Allen. We became so well 
acquainted that Mr. Allen one night said to me in his 
most cordial manner : 

" Come around to my place some afternoon, Jim, and 
I'll show you one of the sights of New York." 

He gave me his number on Water street, and the fol- 
lowing afternoon I strolled over to the address given. 
Over the door was a big sign, " Allen's Place." It was 
directly opposite a very famous resort of which I had 
heard, " Kit Burns' Rat Pit." I saw that the general 
environment was of an even tougher character than our 
own business locality, and it was with a bit of indecision 
that I finally opened the front door and stepped into 
John Allen's resort of the ultra- vile habitu6s of the dis- 
trict. Many, times in my life of adventure, excitement 
and novelty have I been suddenly startled, surprised or 
frightened, but never before or since have I been quite 
so astounded as I was the moment I entered " Allen's 
Place." 

In the center of the first portion of the front room 
was a round table, upon which were strewn well-bound, 
expensive and much-used volumes of the works of 
Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Poe, Dickens and other 
standard authors, and in the center of the table was a 
huge and costly family Bible. To the left center of the 
room was a long bar ; standing upon the bar was a little 
boy, apparently about five years old, sweet, innocent 
and beautiful. It was as if the child had stepped out 
of one of the master paintings of the Madonna to check 
the mad revelry that was rioting at the far end of the 
room, where sailors and women were dancing, drinking 
and brawling. Before the child stood John Allen ; and 
the boy, with a marvelous beauty of voice, was declaim- 
ing bits of poetry from Burns. Mr. Allen turned and 
came forward to meet me. 

14 Well, Jim, glad to see you ! This (lifting the child 
off the bar) is my little one and pet, Chester. When I 
feel a bit sentimental and the racket here ain't too great, 



6 Jim Wardner. 

I stand Chester up on the bar or table and he recites 
my favorite verses for me. He knows a lot from each 
of our standard poets. 4 Now, pet/ " said Mr. Allen 
softly, lifting the boy upon the table, " ' recite something 
for Mr. Wardner/ " 

" Is your name Jim ? " asked Chester of me ; and 
then, quickly, " I like you." 

Somewhat self-reliant though I was, I could say noth- 
ing in reply. Then, with the noise and racket of com- 
mingled music and shuffling feet, oaths and hideous 
ribaldry at the farther end of the room, that sweet, 
fond child stood near the great Bible and repeated 
Portia's address to Shylock. 

" The quality of mercy is not strain'd " 
was burned into my very soul. 

'* It falleth like the gentle rain from heaven upon the just and the 
unjust " 

was thrust into my ear never to be forgotten; and I 
looked at the drunken, dancing sailors and the painted, 
polluted women, and for the first time, possibly, in all 
my life came serious thoughts : Who shall judge them ? 
Shall this child lead them ? 

With a light laugh and a curious smile of affection 
little Chester hugged Allen as he lifted the boy from 
the table, and I hurried away on the plea of being com- 
pelled to do extra work at the store. 

Soon after this episode the New York Sun wrote up 
Allen as " The Wickedest Man in New York." In- 
stantly he was famous, and for some reason had come 
to consider me as his closest friend. Some time pre- 
vious to this the Young Men's Christian Association 
had been making persistent and successful efforts at 
reclaiming the denizens of Water street. Much to my 
astonishment I found that Allen had suddenly become 
a convert. " Allen's Place " was removed from over 
the entrance, and in its stead was a huge sign, " Young 
Men's Christian Association." Here, in place of drunk- 
enness, robbery and the lowest vices, suddenly there 
were hymns, prayers and sermons. Nightly the place 
was thronged with the lowest types of the inhumanity 
of the slums. John Allen became the most effective, 
and, apparently, the most honest and earnest exhorter 



My Earliest Speculations. 7 

among those who addressed the crowds. He was a 
powerful man and a powerful speaker. Shameless wom- 
en cried at his words of warning and beseeching, and 
hardened criminals became frequenters of the meetings 
and professed reformation. Chester was a factor in all 
this, and Allen used the child's talents to advantage. 

I saw the effect upon the general public of Allen and 
Chester, and one day I said to Allen : 

" I will put my time against a little of your money, 
Mr. Allen, and will guarantee to make a thousand dol- 
lars or two within a month." 

" How ? " 

" Come with me and see ; we must have Chester 
with us." 

" All right, Jim ; it's a pleasant day and I don't mind 
a walk anyway." 

We went to a photographer's, and inside of half an 
hour 1 had made arrangements to have a number of 
thousands of photographs of Allen and Chester ready 
for delivery upon a stated date. One beautiful May 
morning the photographs of " The Wickedest Man in 
New York "and the child Chester were on sale all over 
the city. The result was that in a few days Allen and 
I divided $1,500 in cash, over and above all expenses, 
and I possessed the largest sum of money I had ever 
owned up to that date. 

After a little Allen tried to raise the rent of his place 
to the Association, and its officers became suspicious 
that his alleged conversion was sham. But the Sun and 
the photographer had made him famous, and whenever 
he spoke people crowded to hear him. I noted all this, 
and surprised Allen one day by saying : 

" You are an older man than I am, Mr. Allen, but I 
have got a plan that can be carried out, and one that 
will make us both rich. It will beat the photograph 
racket all to pieces." 

" What is it, my boy ?" 

" You are now the best advertised man in the United 
States," I replied. " I propose that you advance money 
enough to pay preliminary expenses ; I will make all 
the arrangements for halls and advertising, and you, 
with Chester as a side attraction, will deliver ten lec- 
tures in ten of the largest cities of the State. There 



8 Jim Wardner. 

will be a lot of money in it, and we will divide up the 
net receipts." 

Allen at once appreciated the situation, and we im- 
mediately made a bargain. I quit the drug store, went 
to Troy, engaged the opera house there, and billed the 
town for the first lecture of " The Wickedest Man in 
New York." Now Allen's besetting sin was a love of 
and capacity for whiskey. He and Chester came on to 
Troy at the appointed time. The evening of the lec- 
ture arrived and with it a crowd that not only packed 
the opera house but filled the neighboring sidewalks. 
A thousand dollars had been taken in at the box-office. 
I waited impatiently for Allen. Hours passed, but he 
did not appear. Then I announced that the money 
would be refunded at the box-office, and the great 
crowd passed out. Allen, drunk, was found before 
morning. It was his last debauch. In three days he 
died. I took Chester back to New York, and he was 
taken in charge by the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion. I have never heard of Chester from that day to 
this. If he is living, and this reminiscence comes to his 
eye, I would like much to hear from him. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ANTI-COW-KICKING MILKING STOOL. 

Upon my return to New York I began at once hus- 
tling for a situation, for the fiasco at Troy had compelled 
me to part with most of the money I had made in the 
photograph deal. Within a few days I met an acquaint- 
ance who told me that a very eminent physician, a friend 
of his, needed an assistant, and that he would be willing 
to pay liberally for the services of a trustworthy young 
man who had had experience as a druggist. My ac- 
quaintance offered to give me a personal introduction 
and said he would recommend me as "discreet." We 
sauntered up Broadway a few blocks and I was ushered 
into the office of Dr. A. M. K., Tapeworm Specialist. 
In the waiting room were three or four thin-faced, blue- 
veined, wild-eyed women, and on our entrance there 
had rushed from an interior room a scared-looking lady, 
who seemed anxious to get home. I at once concluded 
that the doctor had lots of business, and that I would 
probably get a position. He was so busy, indeed, that 
we were compelled to await his pleasure for more than 
an hour. 

Finally, Dr. K. came out and greeted us, asked me a 
few questions, and upon learning that I was from the 
West, said he would try me for a week. I began my 
work as assistant to a tapeworm specialist the next 
morning. I was put in the laboratory and was given 
several bottles and boxes, unlabeled, save that on each 
was marked a number of grains or proportions. I was 
told that my work would consist largely in mixing and 
preparing prescriptions that would be given me, and 
that I was to put them up in accordance with weights 
specified upon the various boxes and bottles. I knew 
enough not to ask any questions, and I also knew enough 
to determine the character of some of the unnamed drugs. 
This knowledge gave me some clue to the modus operandi 



io Jim War drier. 

of the doctor, and though he seemed greatly disinclined 
to give information, I finally by strategy won from him 
his secret. Just what this was I shall not state here. 
Suffice it to say, that each day no less than ten patients 
were diagnosed as suffering from tapeworm, each was 
treated, and each paid — according to the doctor's ability 
to size her up — from twenty-five to fifty dollars ; and 
I believe that each patient left the office convinced that 
she had had a tapeworm removed. 

One morning the doctor told me that he could see 
that I had an eye to business, and that he knew a fellow 
who had perfected an invention, which, if the rights 
for any Western agricultural State could be purchased 
outright, would bring the possessor a fortune. He said 
that if I had a few hundred dollars of ready money, 
he thought he could get me the right for the State of 
Wisconsin (he knew that I was from Milwaukee) at a 
bedrock price. I told him I had about five hundred 
dollars. Without delay the kind doctor introduced me 
to the inventive genius, and I accompanied the latter 
to a loft down-town. There I was shown a combina- 
tion milk stool, with a sort of tripod attachment to 
which was hung a big milk pail. The inventor said : 

" Of course, you have lived in the country, and know 
how to milk cows ? " 

" No, I never milked a cow ; but I know how it is 
done." 

" Well, that's just as well, for you will comprehend 
at once the great value of this anti-cow-kicking milking 
machine. You know, my boy, that more than eighty 
per cent, of cows kick, and the milking of them is often 
not only a tiresome but a hazardous undertaking. With 
this machine it is impossible for a cow to kick over the 
milk pail. I have shipped within a month more than 
one thousand machines to South America. I have the 
rights for only one State left, and that is so far away I 
hardly think you will care to invest." 

" What State is it ?" I asked. 

" Wisconsin ; it's a great dairy State, but you know it's 
a long ways from New York." 

Well, the upshot was that after a good deal of bar- 
gaining, I actually turned over my five hundred dollars 
of good and lawful money of the United States and took 



The Anti-Cow-Kicking Milking Stool. n 

a complicated agreement, printed upon green paper, 
which made me the sole proprietor of the right to manu- 
facture, use and sell the " Anti-Cow-Kicking Milking 
Machine " in the entire State of my nativity. Now it 
happened that during my stay in New York I had been 
in correspondence with a Milwaukee young lady, with 
whom I was very much in love — and with whom in 
these many intervening years the sentiment has grown 
as we shared our triumphs and troubles together — and 
I was anxious to return to my home. It also happened 
that my mother-in-law that was to be had but a little 
while before been presented with a gentle Alderney cow 
by Judge Daniels, of Lockport, N. Y., who had had the 
animal shipped from his farm out to Milwaukee. The 
cow was as kind as a kitten. The great inventor of the 
machine which I believed was to make my fortune, had 
kindly superintended the construction of a specially 
well-finished model for my use. It was painted red, was 
nickel- plated in parts, and was as pretty as a new wagon. 
The very afternoon of my arrival I carried the machine 
over to my prospective mother-in-law's house and, after 
extolling the merits of my invention, I begged her to 
have it tested that evening on the Alderney. The serv- 
ant who did the milking was instructed to try the 
new combination, and started to do so ; but the moment 
the tripod was placed and the maid started to sit upon 
the stool, that gentlest of Alderneys shot out and back 
aright hind foot — and we were so busy carrying the maid 
into the house that there was no time for me to even 
examine the fragments of my future fortune. 

Soon afterward I was offered and accepted a position 
as traveling salesman of druggists' sundries for the firm 
of Kelly & Edmunds, of 176 Washington street, Boston. 
I had made but one trip for the concern — which was 
one of the largest and best houses in the East — when 
George L. Kinsman, of Milwaukee, who had married 
a young lady with considerable money in her own right, 
offered to make me a partner in a new pharmacy which 
he wanted to establish. I accepted the proposition at 
once. Kinsman and I then fitted up, at a cost of ten 
thousand dollars, the " Palace Drug Store," and we 
started out with the best of prospects. I was now in 
business and concluded that I could afford to marry — 



12 



Jim Wardner. 



the best and most permanent conclusion I have ever 
carried out. Everything seemed particularly favorable 
to success. But one day inexplicable Fate walked into 
the " Palace Drug Store," and in a few minutes a prom- 
inent citizen was poisoned and our business was ruined. 

It was in this way : One of our clerks was Philo , a 

careful, conscientious, and skillful druggist. He started 
to wait upon the customer, who wanted a dose of vale- 
rian. Upon the shelf was a bottle of Tilden's extract of 
veratrum viride, the maximum dose of which is five 
drops. Beside that bottle was Tilden's fluid extract of 
English valerian, a harmless narcotic, of which a usual 
prescription is two teaspoonfuls. Philo gave the dose 
out of the wrong bottle, and the customer fell in spasms 
on the marble floor. 

I quit the drug business that day. 



CHAPTER III. 

HOGS AND A TRIP TO ARIZONA. 

That was the turning point in my career. I con- 
cluded to get as far away from the scene of that acci- 
dent as the limits of the continent would permit, and I 
started for California, resolved upon a new field, new 
friends and whatever opportunities might be presented. 
I had an uncle, Mr. George O. Tiffany, living at Los 
Angeles, and after visiting San Francisco I concluded I 
would make him a visit. That was in 1871, and the 
"City of the Angels " was a quaint old Spanish-Mexi- 
can town of few pretensions and less attractions. My 
uncle, however, was a Los Angeles enthusiast, and he 
talked me into the belief that the place would soon 
enjoy a "boom." The result was that I bought six 
acres of land near the town, for which I paid two 
thousand dollars, and which, my uncle assured me, 
would raise five thousand dollars' worth of oranges 
each season, if properly irrigated and properly set out 
with orange trees. In those days in that locality the 
only means of obtaining water was by sinking artesian 
wells. After acquiring title and concluding that my 
real mission in life was to enjoy the "glorious climate 
of California " and become a fruit grower, I sank two 
artesian wells and both proved to be fine "flowers." I 
was overjoyed at my prospects ; but one morning I 
found that my wells ceased to flew, and investigation 
proved that my neighbor, who had been sinking wells 
also, had tapped the water vein above and had ren- 
dered my work useless. I at once offered my ranch for 
sale and succeeded in getting the purchase price back. 
These same six acres afterward sold, in 1888, for one 
hundred and sixty thousand dollars. 

Soon after disposing of my land, and while I was try- 
ing to make up my mind whether it would be best to 
return to " the States," or take passage for Honolulu, 



14 Jim Wardner. 

who should I meet in Los Angeles one day but my 

old boy friend and rabbit buyer, Will . He said 

that he had just come up from San Diego and that 
he had a scheme which would make more money than 
a mint. 

"All I want is one thousand dollars," said Will, "to 
start the most profitable business on the Pacific Coast." 

" Well, what's the plan ?" I queried. 

" Hogs." 

" Hogs ? " 

" Yes, hogs ; say, Jim, I haven't any figures that will 
do this thing justice ; but listen : A short distance from 
San Diego, say about twelve miles up in the San Julian 
Mountains, is a vast natural park timbered with oak 
trees that bear acorns, which are the best hog food in 
the world. The tract of land is unoccupied, and I want 
to buy a thousand dollars' worth of hogs, herd them up 
there, fatten them without cost, and realize at least five 
hundred per cent, the first season. You were such a 
success in the rabbit business, Jim, that I know we can 
succeed in this enterprise. We can buy all the pigs we 
want at two dollars each, and in the fall, when fat, they 
will sell for ten dollars each." 

It certainly did look reasonable that if a man could 
buy five hundred pigs at two dollars each, drive them 
up to the mountains, where they could get, without 
cost, all the food they could eat, and then sell them in 
the fall at ten dollars each, that there was good safe 
money in the scheme. So I gave Will one thousand 
dollars, and he returned to San Diego. Soon afterward 
I heard from him, and everything was lovely. He had 
bought the pigs, succeeded in getting them into the 
mountains, had built a shack to live in, and was happy. 
About three months after I had received the letter I 
went down to San Diego and was soon on the trail lead- 
ing to our hog ranch. I found Will's shack all right, 
and he was sitting in the doorway when I first sighted 
him, apparently asleep. Upon my near approach he 
seemed to awaken suddenly, gave a spring to one side, 
grabbed a big stick, and stood prepared to strike at 
something. Then he recognized me. 

" Good Lord ! Jim, is that you ? I thought it was a 
hog, and was just going to smash him." 



Hogs and a Trip to Arizona. 15 

" Why, Will, what's the matter ? Why do you want 
to smash a hog ? Where are they, anyhow ?" 

"The fact is, Jim, our hog-raising is a failure. I 
brought in here five hundred of the neatest pigs you 
ever saw, but I have found out that it takes at least a 
quarter-section of oak-timbered land to feed one hog. 
The result is that our pigs are scattered all through the 
San Julian Mountains, and most of them are so wild 
and starved that they are dangerous. I have had them 
attack me, and that is why, when you awakened me 
suddenly, I thought one of the hogs had got after me 
again.' , Then he said : " Look there, look ! " Sure 
enough an old razorback, with elongated snout and 
frothy mouth, had emerged from the underbrush and 
was going for acorns faster than a chicken after grass- 
hoppers. He closed the door of the shack, opened up 
a loop-hole, and not until this wild and starved scaven- 
ger had disappeared did I venture out. 

I did not care to investigate the hog ranch any far- 
ther, so I returned to San Diego, and thence to Los 
Angeles as quickly as possible, satisfied that Will had 
at least got even with me for the numerous potato- 
swelled mother rabbits I had sold him so long ago. 

When I returned to Los Angeles, I found the people 
of the town perfectly wild over reports that had come 
in of rich mineral discoveries in Arizona. It was my 
first experience of a mining stampede, and I caught the 
fever at once in its strongest and most malignant type. 
I may as well confess here that I have had it ever since, 
and shall carry it with me to my grave, because it is not 
an infatuation, it is a business, with many chances and 
perils ; a speculative business, combined with fresh air, 
ozone galore, and the companionship of the best fellows 
on earth. No competition in this business, no jealous- 
ies, plenty of room, and always hope. 

The new camp was called Ivanpah, and it was about 
two hundred and sixty miles from Los Angeles. The 
route then lay across the Mojave Desert, and the trail 
was reported to be about the straightest known pathway 
to certain death. Among the prospectors who had re- 
turned from Ivanpah for supplies and who had rich ore 
samples to exhibit was John D. Reed, a San Bernardino 
young fellow, who was known to my uncle, and who 



1 6 Jim Wardner. 

was said by him to be "square." Reed said that if I 
wanted to '* outfit " with him, he was agreeable, and so we 
became " pardners." We bought four pack animals and 
two saddle broncos, the usual kit of miners' tools, 
blankets, guns, ammunition, food supplies, etc., and 
started for Ivanpah one August morning in 187 1. We 
fell in with a lot of fellows bound on the stampede, and 
things went along pretty well until just before we 
reached the Mojave Desert. 

My bronco h^d got mixed up in his riata and had 
" burned" his fetlock joint, so that by the time we had got 
fairly in the desert the sand and heat together made 
him so lame that I was obliged to get off and walk. I 
gradually fell behind the others, but the trail was plain 
and I did not dream of any danger. Suddenly there 
came up one of those sand-storms for which that sec- 
tion of the country is famous. In a few minutes every 
sign of the trail was obliterated, and my eyes, ears and 
throat were filled with the burning alkali dust that 
seemed to move along like a solid wall. I was very 
much frightened, for I knew to be lost on that trail 
without water meant death. Then it occurred to me 
that I had heard of persons getting lost in blizzards and 
that invariably they walked in circles. I determined 
that my safety depended largely upon my ability to 
keep going straight ahead. The storm had lessened 
somewhat in force, and while I could see no trace of a 
trail I could see objects like stones or boulders a few 
feet away. I then adopted the plan of standing still 
a moment, fixing my eye on an object which seemed to 
be straight in front of me and then walking directly to 
it. Then selecting another object I repeated the opera- 
tion. I followed up that procedure for more than three 
hours and never looked behind me once. By that time 
the storm was over, and, unexpectedly and joyfully, I 
struck the trail again. I was so overcome with exhaus- 
tion and burning thirst that I feared I would lose my 
mind, but I fairly pulled my limping bronco along the 
trail. Just as it was getting dusk the bronco began to 
sniff the air and to hurry along as fast as it was possi- 
ble for him to hobble. I knew then that we must be 
near the Cady oasis and spring, upon which Reed told 
me we were to camp that night. I toiled up over a 



Hogs and a Trip to Arizona. 17 

sand-hill and in the dim light before me I could see, be- 
low, the camp. I left the bronco to follow, ran down 
the incline to the beautiful spring, which made Camp 
Cady famous, and without speaking to any one and with- 
out removing my clothes, I dived headlong into the cold 
water. The boys concluded that I had gone insane and 
quickly grabbed hold of me and pulled me out. The 
plunge bath revived me, and I was soon able to do jus- 
tice to the supper that Reed cooked and to rather enjoy 
the compliments that were paid to the " tenderfoot " 
who had been able to take care of himself in a genuine 
and furious sand-storm on the Mojave Desert. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MR. SNOWBALL ; THE BELCHER AND LIZZIE BULLOCK 

MINES. 

We arrived at Ivanpah without further mishap, and 
then began my career as a miner ; a career which for 
diversity of experience and wide range of country ex- 
plored, exploited and operated in, has never been 
equaled by another individual. 

My partner, Reed, I quickly discovered, was a straight- 
forward, practical fellow, and although only twenty-one 
years old, was well up in the art of prospecting and 
knew as much about mines and mining as any one in 
the camp. Soon after reaching Ivanpah we purchased 
the Lizzie Bullock mine — a single location upon which 
no work had been done but which showed surface indi- 
cations in the way of little knife-like seams of sulphu- 
rets of silver running through the limestone formation. 
Much to my surprise Reed knew how to assay and had 
with him an outfit for simple tests. He found that the 
sulphurets carried about six hundred ounces of silver 
to the ton, and, although there were nothing but knife- 
streaks in sight, he advised buying the claim at Clark's 
price, which was five hundred dollars. Reed had no 
money, but sewed up in my clothes were enough green- 
backs to buy the Lizzie Bullock. We bought the prop- 
erty and began work. It did not take me long to find 
out that by following up the little seams we would come 
to places where the seam widened and into little chim- 
neys of ore, which would be from six to twelve inches in 
width, with a pay chute eight to ten feet long. These 
were our bonanzas, and from them we took our ore sup- 
ply by means of a tunnel only. As soon as we had out 
two or more tons we packed it on mules and would start 
on the two hundred and sixty mile journey to Los An- 
geles. As there were sixty miles of desert to cross we 



Mr. Snowball; the Belcher and Lizzie Bullock Mines. 19 

also packed water and food, and the trip was always a 
hard one. 

On one of our trips across the Mojave Desert, in Au- 
gust, 1872, the weather was very hot and dry and the 
sand and alkali were fearful. To add to our troubles 
our cook went crazy. He was a white-haired man, with 
those peculiar gray eyes so hard to explain but belong- 
ing always to occultists, men of limited education and 
new ideas. After braining his faithful dog with an axe, 
he was secured and firmly bound with ropes to a wagon 
wheel. I, also burning with a fever, lay near him. Be- 
ing the youngest of the party he addressed me, when 
alone, as follows : 

" I am going to die. I have been a success, yet not a 
success. Hear the history of my life ; listen, learn and 
profit by it." Then he said, very slowly : " I first went 
to raising mice. I was a success. I raised a world of 
mice, but I said, ' Oh, the end does not justify the means.' 
I resolved to raise elephants. Here again was I a suc- 
cess. Hundreds and thousands of elephants did I raise 
— elephants white and blue. But, the result! The 
markets of the world were soon supplied, and with 'ele- 
phants to sell/ I was poor indeed. My son, would you 
succeed, raise neither mice nor elephants. Size your- 
self up." He died, but I never forgot the lesson. 

Arriving at Los Angeles our product was taken by 
Lazard Frferes, who paid us a uniform price of seven 
hundred dollars a ton (silver was then worth $1.29 an 
ounce), giving us whatever merchandise we thought 
best to pack back and crediting us with any balance 
that might be due ; the result was that our capital at 
" The Freres " increased steadily. Reed and myself be- 
gan to be recognized as successful miners, and we were 
both happy and contented. 

It will be of interest to miners to know that the ore 
in our chimneys changed from black sulphurets at the 
surface to rich yellow chloride of silver at a little depth, 
then to antimonial silver, and sometimes sand carbo- 
nates came in ; but the silver values always remained 
about the same. 

I was now on the high road to fortune. But, of 
course, something had to happen. It came unexpect- 
edly, and disastrously. We started a pack train of 



20 Jim Wardner. 

twenty animals and five men one morning 1 , and all that 
we ever recovered therefrom were the dead and muti- 
lated bodies of our packers. The Apaches had been 
troublesome farther east, but we had no fear that they 
would come in west of the San Francisco Mountains. 
But they did, and our train was the first to suffer. It 
was so evident to both Reed and myself that trouble 
had only just begun that we offered the Lizzie Bullock 
for sale, and the McFarlands, who owned the adjoining 
' property, quickly paid us our price, five thousand dol- 
lars. We had five thousand dollars on deposit with 
Lazard Freres, so that I quit Ivanpah about five thou- 
sand dollars ahead of my first experience in mining and 
within less than a year's time. 

The McFarlands are now rich men. And what of 
the Lizzie Bullock ? For more than twenty-five years 
it has yielded up its treasures of silver, and in the year 
1899 the Lizzie Bullock is a bonanza, even at the low 
price of silver. 

Upon arriving at Los Angeles, having five thousand 
dollars burning in my pocket, and with the conceit that 
I was a practical miner, I was ready and eager to try 
conclusions with any. proposition that required nerve 
and judgment — the nerve being an actuality and the 
judgment being my own conception of Jim Wardner's 
ability. I at once learned that San Francisco was in the 
throes of the greatest speculative investment in mining 
stocks that the world had ever known, and I decided to 
reach the Golden Gate as quickly as possible. Reaching 
San Francisco, I put up at the Occidental Hotel, at that 
time the principal hostelry upon the Pacific Coast. 
Mackay, Flood and O'Brien, merchants, doctors, lawyers, 
priests, rich men, poor men, yes, even beggarmen and 
thieves — everybody bought and sold the stocks of the 
Nevada bonanzas. Well, those of us who were there 
saw some pretty lively times and had some sudden ex- 
periences. I at once began to play the limit with my 
cash resources, and in a very few days I was more than 
fifty thousand dollars ahead of the game. 

How easy it was. 

I began to seriously blame myself for having wasted 
so much time in the Lizzie Bullock and the tiresome 
journeys across the Mojave Desert. I lived like a prince 



Mr. Snowball; the Belcher and Lizzie Bullock Mines. 21 

at the Occidental, and between champagne and success 
my head was abnormally swollen. 

It's different now. 

It gradually became known that Jim Wardner, the 
successful stock manipulator, was also a practical miner, 
and one day a man came to me and said : 

" My name is Snowball and I am a stock broker. I 
have heard the reports of your activity in the market, 
and have also learned that you are a practical miner. I 
have use for a genuine miner who knows enough to 
keep his mouth shut. There is a chance to make a 
million." 

When Mr. Snowball told me his peculiar name I 
almost laughed in his face, for I thought it must be an 
assumed one and that he was " working me/' A wicked 
thought came into my head — I'll roll you, Mr. Snow- 
ball — and I said : 

"I will call at your office, Mr. Snowball, and there 
talk over your plans. I am, as you have learned, not 
only a practical, but a successful miner. I was a half 
owner in the Lizzie Bullock." 

I visited Mr. Snowball's office that day, found that he 
was a genuine broker with lots of business, and that he 
was one of the few dealers who believed in having some 
tangible fact upon which to base calculations. The 
result of it was that Mr. Snowball and I started that 
night for Virginia City, Nevada, which was the fount- 
ain source of all the excitement and fortune- making of 
the day. Upon arrival at the wonderful mining town 
we were met by a Mr. Daly, who was the superintend- 
ent, or manager, of the Segregated Belcher, one of the 
" boom mines." Examination of the Segregated Belcher 
convinced me, inexperienced as I was, that the property 
was absolutely valueless, and was dependent for its 
reputation solely upon its proximity to the genuine 
Belcher and the Crown Point. Returning to San Fran- 
cisco as quickly as possible, I went directly to Webster, 
Soule & Co., and ordered them to sell Segregated Belcher 
for me and to sell it quick. In a very short time Mr. 
Webster came to me and said that affairs were in such 
shape at Virginia City that he would be compelled to 
ask for large margins upon my sale of Segregated 
Belcher. He wanted forty-eight thousand dollars, and 



2 2 Jim Wardner. 

I o-ave it to him and thought to myself how little these 
fellows knew of the real situation ; then I sauntered 
back to the Occidental, gave a champagne supper to 
four of my acquaintances and retired with supreme con- 
fidence that I would soon be recognized as the smartest 
man in 'Frisco. I got up pretty late the next morning, 
and after getting out on the street I noticed a good deal 
of hurry and excitement all about me. I wondered if 
the market had " gone all to pieces " as I, too, rushed 
toward the Stock Exchange. It was before the open- 
ing hour of the Exchange, but as I approached it I saw 
a great crowd of excited men about the curb. In a 
minute more I was near enough to see that one of J. R. 
Keene's representatives was standing on an orange 
wagon and shouting : " I bid seven hundred." Know- 
ing that no stock had approached any such figure the 
day before, I asked the man at my elbow : 

"What stock is he bidding for?" 

" Yellow Jacket." 

"Why, that closed last night at two hundred and 

"Yes; but the news came early this morning that a 
big bonanza had been struck in the lower levels of the 
Gould and Currie and that the whole bottom of the 
Comstock is undoubtedly a bed of solid silver. Where 
under the heavens have you come from that you haven't 
heard the news ?" 

" From my bed," I replied vaguely ; then I braced 
myself for the question : u Any bids for Segregated 

Belcher ?" 

" Just a few minutes ago they were offering five hun- 
dred dollars for it." 

For the first time in my life— and I may truthtully 
say the last time also— my nerve forsook me. We were 
standing at the corner of California and Montgomery 
streets, and I was obliged to put my hand on the cor- 
ner-stone of a building to prevent my falling to the 
pavement. Then I rallied sufficiently to get back to 
the hotel, to reach my room and get into bed. There I 
remained ten days, hardly conscious of my surround- 
ings That was my first and last attack of nervous 
prostration. When I recovered sufficiently to get out 
again I learned that Webster, Soule & Co. had failed ; 



Mr. Snowball; the Belcher and Lizzie Bullock Mines. 23 

that every dollar of my money and $162,500 in addition 
had been lost upon my single sale of Segregated 
Belcher. I noticed, however, that the few acquaint- 
ances I met greeted me cordially, made no reference to 
my loss, and then I discovered that, owing to the tre- 
mendous excitement of the days I had been in bed, no 
one seemed to be aware that I was a pauper. In fact, a 
friend took me aside and told me that he had a sure 
thing on Huhn and Hunt, of Pioche, Nev., and advised 
me to buy at once. He had already left me when Mr. 
Snowball happened along. To my surprise Mr. Snow- 
ball shook hands with me and greeted me with : 

" Hello, Jim ; where have you been the last two 
weeks ?" 

" To the Springs," I replied, bracing up and smiling 
(I meant close proximity to an Occidental Hotel spring 
mattress). 

" Lucky as ever ! Say, but that was a narrow escape 
we had. Now, Jim, why is it you do not give me your 
business ? lean handle it as well as any one.'' 

" It's like this, Snowball ; when I deal at all I like to 
do something worth while, and so it is necessary for me 
to tie up to a concern that is strong enough to carry me 
temporarily in case I get in close quarters." 

" My dear fellow, haven't I made barrels of money 
lately ? I can take care of all that as well as any concern 
on the Exchange. Give me an order and see." 

" I have got a pretty sure thing on Huhn and Hunt, 
and if you want to buy me ten thousand shares go ahead, 
but be quick about it." 

Mr. Snowball rushed away, and in a few minutes I 
received notice that he had secured a portion of the 
shares at $3.50, but that so large an order had forced 
the stock up to $4.50, and that my average was an even 
$4, and the order was completely filled. Almost in- 
stantly Huhn and Hunt commenced to advance. I gave 
the order to sell when $6 was reached. Snowball un- 
loaded a little at that price ; then the market turned, and 
I told Snowball to close my deal. He managed to do so, 
and the next day paid me $3,750. I was again confident 
of success. Snowball became a close companion. 

11 You are the luckiest man living," he would say, and 
I would reply : 



24 Jitn Wardner. 

" Nerve and judgment are all a man needs in this mar- 
ket, Snowball." 

Then we began making deals together. One day the 
bottom fell out of the market, and Snowball and I were 
both broke. Soon after this as I walked along Califor- 
nia street one day, I put my hand in my pocket and 
pulled out two quarters — all the money I owned. I 
stopped upon the grating in the sidewalk in front of a 
saloon and wondered whether I had better spend one of 
my quarters f or a " bracer." The coin slipped from my 
fingers and fell through the grating. Then I said to 
myself : " I have dropped a coin through that grating ; 
others must have done the same thing , there is prob- 
ably a miniature mint down there." I went into the 
saloon, ordered a drink, paid for it with my last quar- 
ter, and then said to the bartender 

" I dropped a quarter through the grating just now 
into the areaway, and I want to go in there and pick it 

up." 

" Certainly ; go right down those stairs and through 

the door into the area " 

I followed directions, found my quarter, and also 
several other coins. Then I began to paw over the dirt 
and refuse and bits of paper, and in less than half an 
hour I had found $9.60. The bartender had been busy 
and, of course, thought no more of the customer who 
wanted to go into the areaway. I ordered another drink 
and remarked that it had taken me some time to find 
my quarter. I went out of that saloon as happy as a 
lark. I had nothing to do, so I strolled up to a place on 
Montgomery street, where a Milwaukee acquaintance 
named Burr had established a small factory for making 
fine shirts. Burr greeted me enthusiastically, and at 
once wanted me to buy a dozen of his best shirts at 
$36, remarking casually : 

" Of course you don't need any credit, but it will help 
me to have your name on my order book for thirty 
days." 

II All right, Burr, wrap them up and I will take them 
with me." 

I also had another friend in the shirtmaking business, 
Ben Wilkins, of Market street. I took the package 
under my arm, went to Wilkins* place and asked him 



Mr. Snowball; the Belcher and Lizzie Bullock Mines. 25 

what he would give for a dozen of Burr's best make, 
that they did not suit me and I disliked to offend Burr 
by taking them back. Wilkins said he would give me 
$24, which I accepted. Then, with $33.60 in my pocket 
I concluded that I would get as far from San Francisco 
as that sum would carry me. I must mention here that 
Burr eventually got full pay for his shirts. 

At that time there was a good deal of talk about 
new mines in the vicinity of Salt Lake City, Utah. I 
found that I just had money enough to take me to that 
place, so I quietly got out of San Francisco without bid- 
ding any of my friends good-bye. 



CHAPTER V. 

SNOW-SLIDES. 

I reached Salt Lake City with just one good silver 
dollar in my pocket. I found that there was a pros- 
perous camp at Alta City, nineteen miles distant from 
Salt Lake, and well up in the Wasatch Mountains. I 
started forthwith for Alta City, and reached there that 
night to find that the thousand or more inhabitants of 
the town — men, women and children — were living com- 
fortably and happily forty feet beneath the hard crust 
of snow which formed the surface of the canon, and 
through which innumerable stovepipes were sticking 
like a lot of black posts. Here, indeed, was a novelty. 
I literally went " down town " in this my first visit to 
Alta City, for to get there I had to descend forty feet 
by means of snow steps cut in corkscrew fashion down a 
forty-foot shaft. Here were streets, cabins, stores, sa- 
loons and all the characteristics of a prosperous mining 
camp. The streets were tunnels, and the means of 
egress from the town, by way of the many shafts, gave 
plenty of air circulation. It was a warm, cozy place, 
and its inhabitants did not seem to think that there was 
anything particularly unique in the situation. I went 
to a boarding house, and the next morning Lem Col- 
bath, manager of the Flagstaff mine, gave me a job at 
snow shoveling, the object being to get at a lumber pile 
the top of which was some twenty feet beneath the sur- 
face. In the meantime I discovered that I was in a 
highly prosperous camp. The Little Emma mine joined 
the Flagstaff, and was becoming a great producer. Gen. 
Robert Schenck, who taught our English cousins the 
fascinations of draw poker, had promoted the Little 
Emma to an English syndicate to the tune of five mill- 
ion dollars. The mines were quite a distance up the 
mountains from Alta City, and the crust upon the snow 
in the canon was so thick and strong that horses could 
safely haul the ore from the dumps in rawhides right 
on the surface. The Little Emma shipped its product 
direct to Swansea, Wales, where it was worth one hun- 
dred dollars per ton net. 



Snow-Slides, 27 

With other men I was put at work to dig out the 
lumber pile, and we had nearly completed our second 
day's labor when suddenly some one in the crew 
shouted, " She's coming ! " Every man started for a 
shaft to reach the town, I following without knowing 
just what was the matter but realizing that some sort of 
danger was imminent. And we were none too quick, 
for in less time than it takes me to write it a vast ava- 
lanche had come down the mountain, piling thirty feet 
more of snow on Alta City, making a total of about 
seventy feet in the lowest portions of the town. I began 
to think that I was in more of a hole than I had been in 
San Francisco. The people of Alta, however, did not 
seem to worry any over the situation, and the men 
at once began the work of raising up through the new 
snow from the various air-shafts. Before the next 
morning there was communication again between Alta 
City and the unburied world. A similar slide on the 
opposite side of the canon destroyed Eldorado and 
twenty men, women and children, and caught a mule 
train and killed ten drivers and forty mules. The killed 
people were nearly all Mormons. 

A curious thing in connection with the calamity was 
the fact that the body of the boss of the mule train, 
Frank Hart wig, was not recovered until the following 
July. In the meantime his widow had married Bill 
Borum, and when Hartwig's body was found it was 
given proper burial, his former wife and new husband 
being chief mourners. 

I applied to Colbath for my two days' pay, received 
six dollars, and started for Salt Lake City. Arriving 
there, I went directly to the Townsend House, then the 
best hotel in town, had a good sleep that night and got 
up in the morning determined to do business. I noticed 
a prosperous looking gentleman about the hotel office 
and soon made his casual acquaintance. His name was 
Goss and he was from New York. He was looking for 
a mine — a cheap one. It did not take me long to find 
prospectors who had claims to sell. One bright young 
fellow had a location which he had named the Miner's 
Pride. He wanted some money. I took a bond, or option 
on it, went to the hotel, and sold Mr. Goss the Miner's 
Pride at a profit of two thousand dollars on my bond. 



28 Jim Wardner. 

I was ready to fly high again. 

Then I sent to Milwaukee for my young wife and baby 
boy to come to Salt Lake City. They came in the course 
of a few days, and upon their arrival I felt the courage 
of a new determination to succeed. I took some pains 
to become acquainted with leading Mormons, and I was 
soon quite chummy with Col. Little, the commander of 
the Nauvoo Legion, an organization perfected for the 
express purpose of fighting United States troops if ne- 
cessity and policy so dictated. Col. Little gave me a 
letter of introduction to " all good Mormons," and I had 
no difficulty in making many friends among them and in 
learning much about their habits, traits of character, etc. 
After a brief stay at the Townsend House, my wife, 
boy and self secured board at Bishop Spencer's resi- 
dence. Spencer was about sixty years old, and among 
his many wives were two very young persons, one not 
more than seventeen years old. These girls Spencer 
used to lock up in their rooms every night. There were 
quite a number of boarders in the Bishop's big house, 
and as several of them were young fellows of lively dis- 
position I came to the conclusion that the Bishop's pre- 
cautions were well taken. It was said that Spencer had 
seventy children. 

I became acquainted after awhile with Mr. J. C. 
Hollingwood, of Big Cottonwood, about twenty miles 
from Salt Lake City, and I bought in the Dolly Varden 
mine with him. In a short time we had an opportu- 
nity to sell the property to Eastern parties. When the 
sale was consummated I had a little more than four 
thousand dollars, and concluded that I would return to 
Milwaukee, settle down to some quiet business, and 
never again be tempted into the vortex of speculation. 
But it happened about the time we reached our old 
home the townspeople were in the throes of one of those 
wheat deals which William Young and Peter McGeach 
knew so well how to handle. The whole town was buy- 
ing wheat. It was California and Montgomery street 
over again on a small scale. 

My four thousand dollars lasted less than ten days. 

I knew then that I might possibly be considered a 
miner but certainly could not be classed as an agricul- 
turist. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE NATIONAL CANDY BANK. 

Broken again, and somewhat moody, I stuck pretty 
close to the house for several days, and as I was carry- 
ing many sheets of paper with all sorts of apparently 
unintelligible figures and calculations my wife became 
alarmed under the impression that I might possibly be 
a "little off." As she would ask me questions in a 
round-about manner to see if I knew what I was doing, 
I, not comprehending what she was driving at, would 
of course answer in ways that seemed strange, and she 
became sure that I was loco. She had consulted our 
mothers, of course, as to what had best be done — no one 
had seen me remain in the house before for three con- 
secutive days — when I surprised her by saying that I 
was going to St. Louis and might possibly open a na- 
tional bank there. 

That settled it. 

Before a physician could be summoned, however, I 
had given my wife a hint that led her to believe that I 
was not quite insane after all. I had finished my calcu- 
lations, and went downtown, called upon Mr. B. B. Hop- 
kins and asked him to loan me three hundred dollars, 
which he did. Then I told my brother Edward and a 
bright young fellow named George Washington Burr that 
if they would go to St. Louis with me on a business trip 
I would give them twenty-five dollars per week and pay 
all expenses. Without asking any questions they ac- 
cepted the offer. I purchased three tickets to St. Louis 
and we were soon on the way. Arriving at St. Louis in 
the morning, we went to Laclede Hotel, corner of Locust 
and Sixth streets; and after breakfast I started out to 
find a suitable location for the business I intended to 
conduct. I did not have to leave the front of the hotel 
for that, because I saw that there was a vacant store in 
the hotel building and that it was just what I wanted. I 



3<d Jim Wardner, 

returned to the hotel office, found the proprietor, asked 
him what rent he would ask for the room on a seven- 
day lease. He said ten dollars per day. I took out my 
borrowed money, paid him seventy dollars, and felt that 
I had made a good beginning, even if my money was 
going pretty fast. Then I gave the boys their instruc- 
tions for the day, each to do certain things. All three 
of us put in as lively a forenoon's work as was ever seen 
in conservative old St. Louis, and with this result : 

By three o'clock that afternoon I was seated upon the 
high front seat of the best band-wagon in the town, 
with the driver in uniform at my side handling the 
reins over four coal-black horses. Each animal was 
gayly caparisoned and was decked out with white sheet 
blankets trimmed with 'blue, and upon each sheet was 
painted in big red letters : 

"THE NATIONAL CANDY BANK." 

A band of fifteen pieces occupied seats in the wagon 
and played lively airs as we paraded the streets of the 
city, while Ed and George were busy distributing hand- 
bills to the crowds that were attracted by the music. 
These handbills read : 

" MONEY FOR ALL ! 

" Come to The National Candy Bank this 

" Evening in the Laclede Hotel. 

" 5,000 lbs. Granulated Sugar to be sold at 

" 5 cents per pound." 

(Granulated sugar at that time was wholesaling at 
ten cents per pound.) 

Occasionally I could hear some fellow in the crowd 

say, " What in h is the National Candy Bank ? " The 

handbills explained nothing, and I felt that the curios- 
ity aroused by them, together with the signs upon the 
horses, would bring out a lot of people. 

In the meantime, work that I had ordered done was 
progressing at our place of business. The whole front 
of the room (which was 40x120 feet) was of glass, and 
upon each of the two windows was painted, u National 
Candy Bank/' Hastily constructed counters started 
from each side of the large double doorway and ran 



The National Candy Bank, 31 

back to a cross counter, behind which was to be the 
cashier's position, I, of course, being the cashier. Upon 
the left wall was a big banner : 

" National Candy Bank. 
"our manner of doing business. 

"Wishing to introduce our famous National Candy- 
Bank candy to the good people of St. Louis, we offer 
you the following privileges : 

" We will sell you one stick of candy for 5 cents ; -6 
sticks of candy for 25 cents ; 13 sticks of candy for 50 
cents. Each stick of candy is wrapped in paper, within 
which will be found a beautiful and poetic motto ; also 
a guaranteed privilege entitling the purchaser to buy 
from one to fifty pounds of granulated sugar at 5 cents 
per pound, 

" OR 

"A Package of Envelopes at 5 Cents per Bunch 

11 No Blanks." 

Back of the counter on the left side of the room was 
a sign : 

" I Sell Granulated Sugar at 5 Cents per Pound." 

The sign back of the counter on the right side of the 
room read : 

" I Pay 10 Cents per Pound for Granulated Sugar." 

I had put up a card in one of the windows, which 
read : " Talker wanted. Apply within at 5 o'clock 
p. m." At that hour there were several applicants for 
the position, and among them was a queer-looking speci- 
men of the long, lank Missourian, who had one glass 
eye, carried a big hickory cane, said that he was a re- 
formed Methodist preacher, and that he could see by 
our " fixin's " just what our scheme was, and that he 
could surely do it justice. I engaged him to come 
at six forty-five sharp, although Ed and George both 
declared that the employment of a one-eyed man meant 
bad luck. 

The particular candy I intended to use was what was 
known as "pipe-stem," and it was manufactured in 
Cincinnati. It was very cheap per pound, and there 



32 Jim Wardner. 

were a good many sticks to the pound. As soon as I 
had formulated my plan — during the time my wife 
thought I was crazy — and even before I had borrowed 
the three hundred dollars from Mr. Hopkins, I had sent 
an order for one hundred pounds of " pipe-stem," 
together with printed mottoes, to be sent by express 
C. O. D., to St. Louis. The privileges I printed to the 
number of many thousands. I hired a number of girls 
to wrap up the sticks of candy, mottoes and privileges 
in tissue paper cut to the proper size, and enough for 
the first performance were quickly prepared. 

At seven o'clock that evening the crowd began to 
gather, and by seven-thirty the room was filled with 
men and women, who walked around and around like a 
lot of sheep "milling," looked at the signs and banners, 
peered into the big box of candy by which I sat, and 
made all sorts of remarks; but not a nickel's worth of 
the National Candy Bank's candy did they buy. Then 
I signed to my reformed preacher, and he stepped upon 
the cashier's counter and began his harangue. I have 
heard many men of world-wide reputation address 
audiences, have listened to the best side-show fakirs, 
and have been inveigled by mere words to part with a 
whole lot of money, but I never listened to so effective 
a sermon as my "talker" delivered in about ten min- 
utes' time. When he had finished, every man and woman 
was a convert to the theory that the National Candy 
Bank was the most philanthropic institution ever estab- 
lished. Then a woman bought five cents' worth of 
candy, and, of course, I judiciously selected the stick 
for her. It called for the privilege to buy five pounds 
of sugar for twenty-five cents. She hurried to the sell- 
ing counter, paid her money, received a neatly done up 
package of five pounds of sugar ; stepped across to the 
opposite counter and received fifty cents. Everybody 
was watching her. Then the crowd began to surge 
toward the counter, and in less than ten minutes from 
the time of the first sale I had to get the assistance of 
my " talker " to count and hand out the sticks of candy, 
while I took in the money and made change. This 
continued until ten o'clock. My "talker" then an- 
nounced that the National Candy Bank would close for 
the evening, but that it would open at two-thirty p. m. 



The National Candy Bank. 33 

the next day, in order to give the ladies and the dear 
little children an opportunity to listen to delicious music 
(I had concluded to hire a band for the matinee per- 
formance), get pure, wholesome National Candy Bank 
candy, and make a few dimes or quarters on the side. 

It took me until midnight to get things straightened 
out, count the cash, and prepare for the next day's mati- 
nee. I found that my gross sales that night were over 
seven hundred dollars. 

Before relating more of the curious history of the Na- 
tional Candy Bank I will explain the somewhat peculiar 
merits of my system. The candy cost about one-tenth 
of a cent per stick ; the motto, privilege, and wrapping 
brought the total up to one-fifth of a cent. I made, 
therefore, on the sales of single sticks four and four- 
fifth cents, and on the general average about four cents 
per stick of candy sold. Only one barrel of sugar was 
necessary, because the packages were simply shifted 
from the selling counter to the purchasing counter and 
back again. A very large percentage of the privileges 
were to buy a package of envelopes at five cents. The 
envelopes I purchased at 25 cents per hundred pack- 
ages. Again, the person who obtained the privilege of 
purchasing the sugar at five cents a pound must have 
paid at least four cents for the privilege, and as he 
must also pay five cents for the sugar he was paying a 
total of nine cents per pound. It is true that he re- 
ceived ten cents back ; but for every sale by which we 
lost on the sugar, we made more than ten sales which 
netted at least nine cents profit each. 

The next evening the crowd was so large that we had 
difficulty in handling them. A great many were col- 
ored people, and they were really the best buyers. 
About an hour before the sale began, as I was seated 
upon a lemon box in the cashier's place, a large, fine- 
looking young man sauntered in, came up to me and 
said : 

" What are you running a lottery for ? Don't you 
know that you can't run a place like this in St. Louis ? " 

II Who are you ? " I asked. 

II I am an officer," and he showed me a badge. 

" I have a commercial license and think I have aright 
to use it and continue my selling of sugar." 



34 Jim Wardner. 

" I guess not, young fellow ; just close up this she- 
bang and come with me." 

I knew the man was an officer and disposed to make 
me trouble, but I intuitively felt that I was being held 
up in some way, so I said : 

"Now see here, last night's business convinces me 
that I have got a good thing here, and if I am let alone 
for awhile I can make some money and afford to spend 
some of it in St. Louis ; but if I am forced to close right 
now, then it will break me. Can't I at least go on with 
the sale to-night ? " 

" Well, go ahead then, but to-morrow morning you 
put in an appearance at the Five Courts, so I won't 
have to come after you. Hear ? " 

" All right ; I will do as you say." 

The officer — now a very prominent man — left, and I 
was feeling pretty blue, but in a few minutes an active 
little chap came in and said : 

" Was Officer in here a few minutes ago ? " 

" Yes." 

" You want to run this joint, of course. You do as I 
tell you. My place is right across the way. After you 
close to-night you come over there, and go up to a sit- 
ting-room. There you will find two women sitting at a 
table. You greet them as though you were an old 
acquaintance, and order a quart bottle of champagne. 
That will pay me for my trouble in coming over here, 
and they will do the right thing for you." 

We had a more successful night even than the open- 
ing, and I had to fairly drive the crowd out when 
closing time came. 

At the afternoon sale a very sweet-faced, but rathfer 
poorly clad little girl came in, walked as quickly as she 
could to where the candy and privileges were sold 
and handed me five cents. I selected one of the sure 
sugar sticks of candy and gave it to her. She was 
greatly delighted and excited upon examining her priv- 
ilege, for it gave her the right to buy fifty pounds of 
sugar. She almost ran out of the place two dollars 
ahead, and I had noticed at the time that she had 
crossed the street and went into a saloon — the very 
place I was to go to as soon as I had closed. I went as 
I had been told to, found the two flashily dressed young 



The National Candy Bank. 35 

women at the table, and I ordered a quart bottle of 
champagne which we disposed of ; then the two women 
left. They were hardly out of the door when my 
official caller entered. 

" Hello," he said ; " good trade to-night ? " 

" Ohj just medium." 

" So you want to continue to sell sugar, do you ? " 

"Yes." 

" Well, sugar's what we want." 

" About how much per night ? " I asked, comprehend- 
ing fully that I was up against " protection." 

" One hundred dollars now, and one hundred dollars 
per night while you stay/' 

" I can't pay any such price, nor do I intend to. I am 
willing to do the fair thing, but neither you nor anybody 
else can get all the sugar." 

To my surprise that seemed to rather please him. 

" Oh, I don't want all there is in it. No use to kill the 
goose that lays the golden egg, you know. Suppose I 
say one hundred dollars to-night — that's two nights, 
you know — and fifty dollars each succeeding night that 
you stay ? " 

" All right, I'll do it," and I started to give him the 
one hundred dollars, when he said : 

" Give it to George (the saloon-keeper), and also pay 
the fifty dollars to him each night. You will, quite 
naturally, want to buy a bottle of wine from him each 
night when you hand him the fifty dollars. If any one 
else bothers you, tell them to get out. I will attend to 
anybody who tries to bluff you." 

This high official of the city of St. Louis was not the 
only one of his kind, for the next day the head of a de- 
partment called on me and deliberately told me that un- 
less he got one hundred dollars a night it would go hard 
with me. I told him that I had a very warm personal 

friend in Mr. , and that he had told me that if any 

one came around with a blackmailing scheme to let him 
know and he would have him arrested. The fellow 
skipped. 

I had to telegraph to Cincinnati for more candy, and 
as my matinee and evening sales were becoming more 
and more popular I began to think that I had struck 
the real bonanza of my business experience. On the 



$6 Jim Wardner. 

fourth day, however, a new species of " hold-up " de- 
veloped ; this time from the very fountain source of the 
good government of St. Louis. It was intimated to me 
that the congregating of the crowds nightly was a 
nuisance which only sugar, more sugar, would lessen ; 
and that the sugar poultice must be applied quickly and 
to the right spot on the governmental anatomy, if it 
was to have any soothing effect. Right on top of that 
the guests of the hotel began to kick, claiming that the 
blare of my band — it was the best St. Louis could afford 
— and the gathering of so many people rendered rest at 
any time before midnight impossible. The proprietor 
came to me and said that I would either have to give 
up my lease or he would have to quit hotel-keeping, and 
wanted to know what I would take to relinquish my re- 
maining two days. I told him that I could not afford to 
close the doors of the most popular and remunerative 
bank that the town had ever known, for less than one 
thousand dollars. He stormed, threatened, and finally 
said : 

" You paid me seventy dollars ; now I will give you 
two hundred dollars this very minute if you will get out 
to-day." 

Feeling sure that some way would be found between 
the city government and the proprietor of the hotel to 
make things uncomfortable and inhospitable for me, I 
finally told him to count out his two hundred dollars. 
He did so and I gave him a receipt, stating that I would 
remove all semblance of the great National Candy Bank 
before the day closed. Then I informed Ed and Burr 
that the bank was closed. The boys wanted to buy the 
outfit and make a trial of the scheme on their own ac- 
count in New Orleans, so I let them have the stuff ; 
they went to the Crescent City and opened up, but made 
a failure there. I returned to Milwaukee, paid Mr. 
Hopkins in full, and had left seventeen hundred and 
eighty dollars in cash in my pocket. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE WILD MAN OF BIG HOLE. 

It was some years after this, when in an interval of 
quietude, I heard of the capture of a wild man of the 
woods, near Butte, Mon. The reports had the ring of 
veracity, and I determined to investigate. Arriving in 
Butte in November I immediately drove out to the 
" Big Hole " country, the scene of the capture. Here 
in the barn of his captor, I found a semi-human being 
that could talk, seemingly of a kind disposition, who 
could not account for his condition. He was extremely 
uneasy under restraint, but apparently harmless. 

This creature was short, well built, and his body was 
covered with hair of the length and shade of a black 
bear's. The hair of his head was in clusters and mats as 
big as your hand, lying plastered on his head and dan- 
gling on his neck. His sole raiment was an old pair of 
pants cut off at the knees. These had been furnished 
him by Mr. Griel, his captor. 

I forgot to say that he had eyebrows fully four 
inches long, sticking nearly straight out, behind which 
glistened as bright a pair of round, quick, glittering 
brown eyes as were ever seen in ape or chimpanzee. Mr. 
Griel listened favorably to my proposition, the freak 
consented, and we bundled him into a wagon, I driving 
and Griel and " Beefsteak Bill M managing the menag- 
erie end of the business. 

Our troubles, however, commenced here. Our horses 
were without blinders on their bridles, and when they 
sniffed the strong bear smell of our captive, they 
fiercely tore through the sage brush, finally becoming 
unmanageable. Both Griel and " Beefsteak Bill " came 
at once to my rescue. Just then a scared rabbit darted 
across the road. Mr. Bear-man was out of the wagon 
in a second and ran for dear life. The rabbit squealed 



38 Jim Wardner. 

and bounded on, but the bear-man was too swift for 
him, for a half a mile away I saw the finish. 

The horses were soon cooled down and Griel, mount- 
ing one, went in pursuit of our treasure, who awaited his 
coming. When Griel came up to him his mouth was 
still bloody from the eaten rabbit, of which nothing re- 
mained except here and there some bits of skull and 
bones and fur. Griel and Bill walked with him to 
Butte — but far in the rear of the horses. All went well 
until a bicycle was met, when his excitement knew no 
bounds. Pulling away, he chased it briskly, but the 
rider, scared to death and with a good long start, eluded 
him. We came near losing him, and would have done 
so had not a cowboy accurately thrown a lasso and 
checked him. Throwing a blanket around him, he was 
marched to Griel's shack, just outside Butte, and I, as 
manager, started out to hire a hall. 

After having a gorgeous banner and pictures painted 
in glowing colors, illustrating his wondrous exploits, I 
hired Caplice Hall and advertised to exhibit him at 
fifty cents admission. Great crowds came to see him. 
We one day added a graphophone to our show ; that 
settled it. He disappeared and was found two days 
afterward in a prospect hole with two ribs broken. 
Dr. Norcross took charge of him, but so hard did he 
plead to return to " where the green grass grew " and 
the "cold water ran " and fresh rabbits were plentiful, 
and where no " devil's trumpet " crazed him, that I con- 
sented, and Griel and I took him back to Big Hole. He 
had really ceased to be a notoriety, but not before 
Griel and I were much ahead on the venture. As the 
ghost never walked in our show, our expenses were 
minimum. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

DEADWOOD IN THE BLACK HILLS. 

I began at once to seek out some sort of salaried po- 
sition, thinking that a sure thing at the end of each 
month was about the only safe provision that I could 
make. I was firmly resolved that if I did get a good 
situation, nothing would tempt me to leave it. I even 
pictured out a happy future, when, by doing extraordi- 
nary good work for some prosperous firm, I would be in- 
vited to become a member of it, and spend my life in 
that ease and comfort which comes only from systematic 
and steady business effort. " No more experiences for 
Jim Wardner," I told my wife. She was awfully glad 
of my determination. I called upon H. Bosworth & 
Sons, the large wholesalers, and my services "for the 
road " were at once accepted. I was given a route 
which took me up into the Northwest, and one morn- 
ing I reached the new and thriving town of Yankton, 
South Dakota. 

Almost the first man I met in Yankton was a fel- 
low who had just returned from a hurried trip to the 
Black Hills. He had a bottle of placer gold. One 
glimpse of the precious metal was enough to eradicate 
from my mind any and all resolutions I had formed 
about settling down to a life of plodding business. 
Without any hesitation or consideration I returned to 
my hotel, ordered my sample trunks to be returned to 
H. Bosworth & Sons, Milwaukee, and before mid-after- 
noon I was a passenger on a little steamer which was 
making its way up the Missouri River to Fort Pierre. 
The rush to the Black Hills had begun, and the boat 
was crowded with adventurers. My mining experience 
in Arizona qualified me to make calculations pretty 
closely as to the outcome of a stampede, and I was about 
the only calm individual in Fort Pierre when we landed 
there. 



40 Jim Wardner. 

A number of us started on foot for Rapid City, 160 
miles distant. We soon met a returning bull train, and 
I succeeded in buying a bronco from one of the outfit. 
Then I pushed on alone. That night I camped with a 
bull-whacker named McCabe, and late in the evening a 
man came in who said his name was John Christianson. 
He was without money and was hungry, but was deter- 
mined to make his way to the Mecca of gold. He told 
me that he had been employed by Clarence Shephard 
& Co., of Milwaukee, and that he had left home with 
sufficient money to get through all right, but that at 
Sioux City he had run up against a brace game of faro 
and had dropped every cent he had. He asked me to 
carry his coat for him when he started out the next 
morning, and he left the camp as soon as it was light. I 
followed on later, and when I overtook him at Chey- 
enne Crossing he was chopping wood to pay for his 
dinner at Smith's Ranch. I called him off that job and 
gave him five dollars — one-half of all I had with me. I 
went on, carrying Christianson's coat, and I saw nothing 
more of him for the time being. I reached Deadwood 
all right, kept the coat with my belongings, and time 
passed. Nearly a year afterward 1 happened to be in 
"The Box'' saloon when a fine-looking, well-dressed 
man came in. Noticing me he said : "Aren't you Jim 
Wardner?" I replied that I was the veritable "Jim." 
" I think, young fellow," said he, " that you have got a 
coat that belongs to me." Then I recognized Chris- 
tianson. 

" Now, Wardner, you gave me a great lift when you 
carried my coat for me, and I want you to join me in a 
quart bottle. lam now chief . engineer of the Home- 
stake, and whenever John Christianson can do you a 
good turn let him know it." 

It was only a short time after that before an election 
was about to take place. Andrew Plowman was run- 
ning for district attorney ; he was a decent sort of fel- 
low, but stood no show of election unless he could carry 
Lead City, where, it was said, he stood no show for 
the miner's vote. Plowman came to me, and said he 
could do nothing unless I could aid him ; that he was 
all right except at Lead City. I liked Plowman, and so 
I said that I would see about that particular district. 



Deadwood hi the Black Hills. 41 

Then I went to Christianson, told him the situation, and 
that Plowman was a friend of mine. The result was 
that Plowman carried Lead City, and was elected by a 
large majority. But this is getting a little ahead of 
my consecutive story. 

Upon arrival at Deadwood I at once ordered a stock 
of goods from H. Bosworth & Sons. The firm respond- 
ed to my request, but owing to a series of delays in the 
forwarding I found that it would be necessary for me to 
be doing something in the way of making money while 
the goods were on the way. In looking about the rap- 
idly building city of Deadwood I discovered that there- 
was a bit of vacant and unlocated ground, with about 
thirty feet fronting on Lee street, just below the point 
where the Deadwood and Whitewood Creeks come to- 
gether. It was the creek itself. Before daylight of the 
morning following my discovery of this unlocated 
water lot I had a pretty good store building up. I 
wanted the front to be of glass, and all that part was of 
unglazed sash. There was no glass to be had in Dead- 
wood just then, so I covered the sash with cotton cloth. 
Finding out that my goods were pretty sure to be de- 
layed for a considerable time, I had a bar built along 
one side of the room, bought a barrel of whiskey and a 
few bottles and glasses, hired a fellow who said he had 
been a " star mixer " at the Hoffman House sideboard 
in New York City, and started my first saloon. 

One evening soon after the saloon was in full blast 
my bartender told me that he was compelled to take a 
night off and he left me alone about ten o'clock, taking 
our only revolver with him. He had no more than left 
the premises before as scoundrelly a looking fellow as 
I had ever seen in the Hills walked in, apparently half 
drunk, and called for a drink. Just then I noticed that 
he had the handle of a big dirk knife in his right palm, 
the blade of the knife being concealed by his coat sleeve. 
Before I had time to even grab an ice pick he made a 
lunge at me. I dodged the blow and then, without a 
moment's hesitation, I sprang headlong against the 
cheesecloth covering of the front sash and went through 
it, carrying sash and all with me. As I jumped through 
the sash I remembered that it was a good sixteen feet 
to the flowing water below, into which the force of my 



42 Jim Wardner. 

jump would probably carry me. The result was that I 
went into the river head-first, and it was with great dif- 
ficulty that I finally extricated myself from the mass of 
cloth, debris of sash, and the water, and got out upon 
the street. The robber took about $100 that was in the, 
till and escaped. 

Soon after this my goods arrived and I opened up the 
"Red Front Store," which became one of the well- 
known establishments of Deadwood. I also opened a 
saloon and lunch room, which I styled the " Oyster 
Bay," and wherein I sold the first oysters brought into 
Deadwood. 

I began to make enough money to enable me to think 
of larger operations than the store and saloon afforded, 
and so I sold out those establishments and went into 
partnership with Fred T. Evans (Big Fred) in the 
freighting business. We had 500 yoke of bulls 
employed and did the larger portion of the freight- 
ing between Deadwood and Fort Pierre. This kept 
me most of the time on the road between the two 
places. 

One afternoon as I was going west from Fort Pierre 
and was upon a ridge near Grindstone Buttes, I saw off 
to my left a party of Indians who had seen me and were 
evidently intent upon cutting off my trail before I could 
get to the crossing at Deadman's Creek. The Indians 
were just beginning to be troublesome. I knew I had 
an extra good bronco, and I also knew that I had to 
make the crossing before being overtaken or it would 
be all up with Jim Wardner. There were eight or ten 
Indians in the party. My pony was loaded with the 
usual outfit of blankets, frying pan, coffee pot, etc., and 
two days' rations. I took out my knife, cut all the 
straps that held my blankets and kit to the saddle and 
started for the ford, the only place in many miles where 
a crossing could be effected. The moment the Indians 
saw my movements they let out their ponies, and the 
race for Deadman's Crossing began. The Indians were 
coming in at one angle and I at another, with the dis- 
tance to the crossing about the same for all of us. I 
always admired the running of a horse. I saw Salvator 
win the Suburban, and admired him, but not so much 
As I did my little bronco upon this somewhat exciting 



Deadwood in the Black Hills. 43 

race. The little fellow was on a slight incline, while 
the Indians were on the level bottom land. I remem- 
ber that I said to the pony : " If you don't stumble in 
going* down the slope, you are a sure winner." How he 
did run! He seemed to know just as well as I did where 
he wanted to go, and why it was necessary to get there 
before the horses off to the left. Now and then a bullet 
would whistle by, and that was as good encourage- 
ment to the bronco's efforts as I could wish. We 
reached the ford, crossed, and were comparatively 
safe, as the trail led through the willows, into which 
the Indians knew I could dart any moment, and they 
also knew, as I did, that a big bull train was not far 
from the crossing. I quickly overtook the train,, in 
fact. On that same trip I found the dead and muti- 
lated bodies of a Swede and his wife who had been 
killed near Wichita Spring, where they had camped 
for the night. 

We did well in freighting, but bull- whacking, even as 
a proprietor, was pretty slow for me. One day I 
thought to myself that it would be a money-making 
scheme to build a warehouse, buy up all the corn, oats 
and feed in the vicinity, and then retail it at my own 
idea of prices and profits. I had hardly got the thought 
well defined before I asked Fred what he would give for 
my interest in our outfit. He at once made me an offer ; 
I accepted, and within twenty-four hours my warehouse 
was under construction. In the meantime, I began 
buying the corn, oats, etc. No person suspected my 
" corner," as all thought I was buying heavily for our 
bull train. I soon corraled about all the grain in the 
various camps, and had it safely stored in my ware- 
house, but had no insurance. Then came the great fire 
— the fire that licked Deadwood out of the gulch. All 
that was left to me was my wife and children, and they 
had to be cared for. One of our prominent Deadwood 
citizens was a Mr. Stebbins, of the banking firm of 
Stebbins, Wood & Post, of Cheyenne and Deadwood, 
Mr. Stebbins running the Deadwood branch. Right 
after the fire I saw him standing by the ruins of the 
bank building, gazing at the vault which loomed above 
the red-hot ruins. I told him that the fire had left me 
absolutely broke, and that I wanted $5,000. He replied 



44 Jim Wardner, 

that he did not believe that there was anything left in 
the vault. I urged that that would make no difference, 
that a letter of credit on Sioux City for $5,000 was what 
I needed and must have. 

" You generally get what you start out after, Ward- 
ner," he replied ; " although to give up that sum of 
money to a man who claims to be dead broke is hardly 
good banking. When can you pay it back ? " 

" I don't know ; possibly never ; probably within 
ninety days." 

Of course I got my letter of credit on Sioux City and 
I started for that town. Arriving at the "boom city" 
of Iowa I began to buy eggs. I worked quietly and 
rapidly and soon had all the eggs of Southeastern Da- 
kota and Northwestern Iowa bought and paid for. My 
wholesale buying caused prices to advance, but I secured 
thousands of dozens as low as nine cents per dozen. I 
contracted to have the eggs delivered to me, properly 
crated, at Sioux City, on the steamer C. K. Peck, bound 
for. Fort Pierre ; and the decks of the boat were piled 
high with tons upon tons of my purchases. Freight 
trains were leaving Fort Pierre daily for Deadwood, and 
upon arriving there I quickly succeeded in making a 
contract for the hauling of the eggs into the Black Hills. 
The weather was getting cold and, foreseeing that, I 
had bought many bales of blankets at Sioux City. I 
took the precaution of having the crates and boxes of 
eggs wrapped in blankets as they were loaded upon the 
freight wagons. I went ahead of the train and awaited 
its arrival in Rapid City. I had, of course, spread the 
news that good, fresh, unfrozen Iowa eggs would be in 
that market in a few hours. By the time the bull train 
pulled in I had sold enough of my merchandise to get 
all my money back, pay all freight bills and other ex- 
penses, and had the bulk of my eggs to take into Dead- 
wood. The eggs cost me in Rapid City an average of 
$4.50 for thirty dozen, and I sold them at $15 per thirty 
dozen. The sales were all for cash and when I started 
for Deadwood every pocket in my clothes was literally 
jammed full of money. 

Reaching Deadwood ahead of the train I at once 
called to see Mr. Stebbins at his hastily constructed new 
bank building. I had hardly washed my hands and face 



Deadwood in the Black Hills. 45 

for a week ; my clothes were worn and ragged, and I 
looked " tough." As I went into the bank Mr. Stebbins 
met me with a frown as he took in my dilapidated ap- 
pearance. He did not offer to " shake," but said : " See 
here, Jim ; I have heard that you used up that letter of 
credit, then overdrew your account, and have been haul- 
ing in tons of worthless frozen eggs into the camp. What 
in the devil do you expect to do ? My letting you have 
the $5,000 and your over-drafts have put me in the hole 
in great shape. Right this minute I have got to have 
$11,000 and don't know where to get the currency. You 
are the d dest fool I ever saw." 

Then I laughed. Of course, Mr. Stebbins took my 
light treatment of so serious a matter with quick anger. 
Then I said to him : " You want $11,000 in currency ? 
Well, Mr. Stebbins, let's see what the bank of Jim 
Wardner can do for you. These old clothes are about 
the safest and best bank vault in the Hills, Stebbins, 
and you are welcome to the combination." 

Then I began to unload loads of money from every 
pocket. The greenbacks piled up and piled up on a 
table by which we were standing, and Stebbins began 
to smile. Soon there was fully $1 1,000 withdrawn from 
my vaults, and the most surprised man in the Hills was 
the banker of Deadwood. After I had sold out all the 
eggs I was nearly $7,000 ahead on the deal and was ready 
to tackle some new enterprise. 

About that time the walking contest mania had 
reached Deadwood, and I concluded if I could get some 
lively young chaps to claim the walking championship 
of their respective camps that I could get up a contest 
that would make some money. I selected a young man 
named Hope to represent Lead City, a fellow named 
Cody as the champion of Central City, and a man named 
Smith, who had but recently married, to do the honors 
for Deadwood. I hired the Big Bonanza Hall, fixed 
the contest at sixty hours, and began to work up excite- 
ment in the three camps, each, of course, being imme- 
diately anxious to have its representative win the great 
race and the Walking Championship of the Hills. It 
was to be a go-as-you-please affair. I thought there 
was good timber in Smith and so I got him away upon 
a ranch where I put him in the hands of a man who 



46 Jim Wardner. 

understood training. I concluded that if the Deadwood 
candidate won I would make a lot of money in the bet- 
ting, which I knew was sure to take place. The price 
of admission was $1.00, and during the time of the race 
the hall was packed all the time. The betting was 
furious, and I remember that John Worth sold more 
than $20,000 in pools. 

As I had judged, Smith was an easy winner and cov- 
ered over 200 miles. Toward the close of the race and 
when it was certain that Smith would win, I bought a 
neat little present for Mrs. Smith, which I intended to 
give her at the close of the performance, thinking that it 
would please her to have her husband declared " Cham- 
pion of the Hills," and to receive personally a remem- 
brance. 

Just before evening of the night which was to ter- 
minate the performance, and while the contestants were 
hard at it and the crowd was crying its favorites, I was 
sent for to meet a woman outside the hall. There I 
found Mrs. Smith and she was looking daggers and 
flashing lightning from both eyes. 

" Say, hasn't that fool of a husband of mine got 
through with this racing nonsense ? " 

"Very nearly, Mrs. Smith, very nearly," I said in my 
most conciliatory voice, for I knew there was a big 
blizzard brewing, " and I want you to be here this even- 
ing to see your husband come in a winner and the recog- 
nized champion, and at the same time accept from me a 
little present which I have prepared for you as a 
memento of this noteworthy event." 

" You do, eh ? Well, I won't be here. I don't want 
none of your presents nor none of your soft talk ; but 
what I do want, and what I'm going to have, is for that 
lazy good-for-nothing to come right straight home and 
chop me some wood." 

I knew that Smith had plenty of time to go and chop 
the wood, and that the fresh air would do him good, so 
I got him out of the hall, turned him over to his wife, 
and she took him home. Promptly within an hour 
Smith returned, as he said he would, completed and won 
his race, and made me richer by several thousand dol- 
lars, besides earning more money for himself than he 
had ever before possessed. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE GOLDEN SUMMIT. 

That spring I started a ranch on the Belle Fotiche, 
and I spent a lot of money trying to become that most 
independent of all human beings, the farmer. The fact 
that I never had had the least bit of experience in that line 
is probably why the venture attracted me. At any rate, 
I started in right royally to become one of the sover- 
eigns of the land ; but the hail cut my oats and barley 
to the ground, my potatoes were frozen in their hills, 
the mink, weasels and foxes ate my poultry, and a fa- 
vorite colt got into a ditch one day and was drowned. 
When " Poor Richard " said that " He who by the plow 
would thrive, must either hold himself or drive," he 
proved that he understood the exact situation much 
better than did Horace Greeley, whose never-tiring ad- 
vice to young men to become agriculturists spoiled 
many a man's life opportunities in the West. 

My next move was to become interested in a coal 
mine, the first one opened in the Hills. It was located 
on the Redwater, about thirty miles from Deadwood. 
It was a fine property, paid well, and now belongs to 
the Northwestern Railway Company. 

I had considerable ready cash on hand, and I was 
wondering what sort of an opportunity would present it- 
self to take it from me, when John Herman, P. D. 
O'Brien and myself came to the conclusion that the 
quickest way to a big fortune in that country was by the 
construction of a ditch and the bringing in of water to 
work the placer mines in the Nigger Hill and Bear 
Gulch Districts. We had a survey made, and found 
that a ditch sixty miles in length would be required. It 
was a big undertaking, but we started the work, confi- 
dent of success and future vast rewards from our sale of 
water to the placer miners. All worked well until we 
had about fifty miles of ditch completed, when one day 
there came a cloudburst, which ripped our work pretty 
nearly from one end to the other. We quit that enter- 
prise just about as quickly as the cloudburst did, and I 



48 Jim Wardner. 

had found out one of the things which were to throw 
me down again, as I had confidently and superstitiously 
expected. 

The very next day after the cloudburst I chanced to 
meet a man named Rosenbaum, who had been a fore- 
man for us, and he told me that in the spring of '76 
when he came into the Hills by way of Harney's Peak 
he had one day found some gold quartz float of such 
marvelous richness that he had not dared to show it 
to his companions, and that he had been waiting for 
an opportunity to go back to the locality with some 
reliable person who had means enough to grubstake the 
outfit and make a thorough search for what he believed 
to be a great quartz discovery. He said he was sure he 
could return to the place where he found the rich float. 
I wanted to get away from the ditch as far as possible, 
so I at once procured two outfits and Rosenbaum and 
I started on our trip. Arriving at a place which Rosen- 
baum declared to be " about the spot," we established 
a camp. The place was about seventy miles from 
Deadwood and near the foot of Harney's Peak. There 
was a hog-back foothill extending up toward the moun- 
tain, and Rosenbaum declared that the float he saw was 
upon the slope of the hill. We started in to prospect, 
Rosenbaum going to the further side of the hill and I 
keeping along the side nearest to our camp. I had gone 
but a few hundred feet up the incline when I came upon 
pieces of float that fairly dazzled me. The quartz was 
simply thick with gold. A little further I came upon 
bushels of the richest float I had ever seen, and far bet- 
ter than I have ever seen since. I became greatly ex- 
cited. I actually piled the quartz into little mounds and 
then kept on. Suddenly my eyes rested on a chunk of 
quartz half as large as my head and nuggets of gold 
were standing out of it on every side. I made a grab 
for it as a miser clutches his gold in the realistic drama. 
It was heavy. I trembled with exultation. I shouted, 
" Rosenbaum ! " He was a mile away and did not hear 
me. Then I sat down, looked the specimen over care- 
fully, saw that it was not much worn, and, of course, knew 
that I was near the lead from which it had come. I 
could imagine the croppings to be almost solid gold, 
and then I shook with fear lest we should be unable 



The Golden Summit. 49 

to realize all the millions we wanted before the value of 
gold would be cheapened by our great discovery. Heavy 
as the specimen was I packed it with me as I started again 
up the slope of the foothill. Pretty soon I could find no 
trace of mineralization and I knew that I was above the 
lead. Then I began to descend, searching every inch 
of ground, but found no croppings. Then I came upon 
the float again and I knew for a certainty about where 
we would have to dig to strike the vein. Then I tore my 
handkerchief into pieces, and tying the bits to sticks I 
marked the place so that I could not fail to find it 
again. 

Returning to camp I found Rosenbaum had preceded 
me and that he had failed to find any float upon the side 
of the hill where he had prospected. When he saw my 
find (we afterward sold the piece for $600) he was ab- 
solutely wild. We both hurried back and made a care- 
ful study of the ground where the float began, concluded 
the vein must run at a certain angle and dip, and then 
proceeded to stake out our location. That night the 
two most excited and expectant miners in the world 
were camped in the shadow of Harney's Peak. 

Before daylight the next morning we had cooked our 
breakfast, eaten it, and were on the way to discover the 
lead. Within a very few hours of hard but exciting 
work we had cross-cut the surface far enough to come 
upon the vein. It was very narrow, but the ore was of 
very high grade. We sank upon the vein a few feet, 
found that it widened out, but that the quartz was 
clearly of even grade. Then we were at least safe 
against the danger of depreciating gold values. 

We packed up, carried more than a thousand dollars' 
worth of gold specimens with us, reached Deadwood 
and made preparations for putting up a 5 -stamp mill 
as quickly as possible. We had named our mine the 
Golden Summit. We got the mill to running and from 
the surface dirt alone we cleared up over $8,000. Then 
we were offered $10,000 for the property and we sold it. 

The Golden Summit is still working, sometimes pay- 
ing well and always, I think, yielding some profit on 
the work. That district has become famous because of 
the location thereon of one of the most sensational 
mines of history, the Holy Terror. 



CHAPTER X. 

BUTTERINE. 

I had now lived in the Hills five years, had quite a 
snug sum in cash, and again the feeling possessed me 
that for my family's sake I would return to civilization. 
We left Deadwood to return to Milwaukee in 1882. 
After locating my family comfortably in Milwaukee I 
began looking around for some permanent and profita- 
ble business. One day I met a man who told me that a 
friend of his in Chicago had established a factory for 
the making of butterine, a new product, which was 
really superior in many ways to dairy or creamery but- 
ter, and that there was really a fortune in it. I secured 
the name and address of the manufacturer, Mr. J. H. M., 
and went to Chicago. I met Mr. M., saw samples of his 
product and was at once impressed with its possible 
future. After some talk, Mr. M. told me that if I would 
furnish satisfactory references he would send me South 
to work up the business in that section of the country. 
I gave him the name of H. Bosworth & Sons, Milwau- 
kee, as a reference. I then bade Mr. M. good day, telling 
him that if he found my reference all right to wire me 
at Milwaukee and I would report for duty at once. 

I went back home, and the next morning I was in 
Mr. Hopkins' (of H. B. & Sons) office upon his arrival 
downtown. In looking over his mail he found a letter 
from Mr. M. asking particulars as to one James F. 
Wardner. 

" Here is a letter making inquiries about you, Jim," 
said Mr. Hopkins, handing me the letter. 

" If you are in a hurry, Mr. Hopkins," I said, "per- 
haps I might write the reply and you sign it and send 
it on." 

Mr. Hopkins said, "All right," and so I prepared 
about the sort of letter I thought Mr. Hopkins ought to 
write, and handed it to him for inspection. Upon read- 



Butterine, 5 1 

ing it Mr. Hopkins hesitated a moment and then said : 
" Say, Jim, don't you think this is pretty strong ? Well, 
well, I had no idea what a valuable man you were until 
I read this letter. I don't know (hesitating a moment) 
how the town can afford to lose your services to Chicago 
after all this explanation of your wonderful qualities. 
My Lord, Jim, you are so much better than I thought 
you were/' But he signed the letter, it was mailed, and 
the next day I called upon Mr. M. 

"Mr. Wardner, I congratulate you upon the con- 
fidence and esteem in which you are held by your for- 
mer employer, Mr. Hopkins," said Mr. M. " I have 
received the best and strongest letter of recommenda- 
tion from him as to your character and ability that I 
have ever seen in that line. I congratulate you and am 
ready to engage your services." 

I started on my trip and met with great success in St. 
Louis, Nashville, Mobile, and, in fact, all through the 
South, and then went to New Orleans to establish there 
a permanent agency. 

But fortune was not yet ready to smile on me. A 
carload of butterine was stacked up on the sunny side 
of a New Orleans freight depot, and Sol had done his 
work. I took the stuff to a cold storage warehouse but 
the effect was bad, for a butter-trier revealed the fact 
that the laws of specific gravity had relegated each par- 
ticular element of that bum butter to its proper place, 
and exhibited the cotton seed oil, the lard, the vaseline, 
the coloring and the unnamable refuse, each in a stratum 
by itself. 

This was discouraging, and I sold the stuff for grease 
and took a stroll through the cemetery, almost envying 
the silent ones who had left a curious world, where 
hopes end in disappointments and butterine in grease. 

I was stopping at the Perry House. I picked up a 
daily paper, and the first item that caught my eye was a 
report of the gold discoveries that Pritchard and his 
party had made in the Coeur d'Alene country in Idaho. 
That dispatch was the magnetic needle which pointed 
out to me the way to a quick fortune and marvelous 
experiences. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE CCEUR D'ALENE. 

Now begins the most important epoch of my eventful 
career tip to this prosperous year of our Lord, 1899. 
Now for the first time will be told the complete and 
consecutive history of the development of the Coeur 
d'Alene mines. Chief among the interesting facts will 
be those concerning the great Bunker Hill and Sullivan 
mines, now controlled by D. O. Mills, of New York 
City. 

It was early in 1883 that the news of Pritchard's dis- 
coveries set the whole country wild. Leaving New Or- 
leans by the first train I could get, I arrived in Chicago 
and told Mr. M. that I was bound for Idaho. From him 
I obtained two hundred packages of butterine, had 
them billed to Thompson's Falls, via the Northern Pa- 
cific railway, and stopping in Milwaukee only long 
enough to bid my family good-bye, I took train for the 
West. Murray and Eagle were the two new camps 
located in the Coeur d'Alene and were the objective 
points of the throng of wild-eyed stampeders who were 
fairly rushing over each other in the scramble to reach 
the new diggings. It is thirty-five miles from Thomp- 
son's Falls to Murray, and one of the worst trails ever 
traveled. The distance was a steady up-grade for 
twenty miles and then down-hill constantly for fifteen 
miles. My butterine came all right and then arose the 
question of getting it to Murray. The snows were deep 
and pack animals could not be had. I had a toboggan 
made and then for more than two months I hit that 
awful trail daily, hauling by hand as much butterine as 
I could draw each trip. I got almost fabulous prices 
for the stuff and I was content to let others do the pros- 
pecting while I was already working a regular " pro- 
ducer." In making these trips I became very tough 
and strong, and was soon able to compete as a draft 



The Cceur D'Alene. 53 

animal against any mule on the trail. I was compelled 
to wear rubber boots and I discovered after awhile that 
their weight and warmth stopped the blood circulation 
in my feet, and that my toe nails were beginning to get 
loose. There was no pain or soreness attendant and so 
I did not pay any attention to the matter. The nails 
became more and more loose, and finally one night 
after I had had an unusually hard trip I found on tak- 
ing off my boots and heavy woolen stockings that all 
the toe nails were either off or nearly ready to come 
off at the slightest touch. I was greatly astonished and 
yet, strange as it may appear, was not much incon- 
venienced. 

After awhile I made up my mind that there would be 
more money in regular freighting than in anything in 
the mining line, for standard rates were twenty-five 
cents per pound from Thompson's Falls to Murray. I 
picked up a cracking good dog team and began to make 
money rapidly. Soon I had forty mules on the trail and 
was doing a tremendously profitable business. The 
next thing was to get a general supply store established, 
and I was running smoothly in the groove of success. 
Money rolled up and I became recognized as one of the 
substantial men of the camp. 

With a few associates we organized the Potoxsi 
Ditch Company, and built a ditch twenty miles long on 
the west side of the Coeur d'Alene to carry the waters 
of Beaver Creek to the rich diggings of Trail Gulch. 
That ditch is still a factor in that country and serves its 
purpose well. Opportunity offered and we sold the 
ditch at a good profit. Every indication, every relied- 
upon superstition, and every move I made, seemed to 
favor my headlong rush toward the goal of wealth. I 
actually got tired of making money and once again con- 
cluded that I would take a well-earned rest, 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE BUNKER HILL AND SULLIVAN. 

And How it Happened that Kellogg's Jack Came to be Called 
*'the $4,000,000 Donkey." 

11 Prom the evidence of the witnesses, this Court is of 
the opinion that the Bunker Hill mine was discovered 
by the jackass, Phil O'Rourke, and N. S. Kellogg ; and 
as the jackass is the property of the plaintiffs, Cooper & 
Peck, they are entitled to a half interest in the Bunker 
Hill and a quarter interest in the Sullivan claims/' 

Thus spoke Judge Norman Buck, of the District Court 
of Idaho, in his decision of the celebrated case involving 
the ownership of two claims in the Coeur d'Alene dis- 
trict of Northern Idaho, now valued at $4,000,000 and 
giving direct employment to more than 400 miners. 

It was in 1885. For many years I had been in the habit 
of promising my wife, whenever I was " broke," that if I 
-ever made another competency I would quit mining and 
speculating and would settle down to home life and eco- 
nomical habits. This time I was sure that my pledge 
would be kept, for I had closed out all my varied interests 
at good round sums, had written my family when to ex- 
pect my return home, had bidden most of my friends 
<good-bye and good luck, had my favorite cayuse saddled, 
and was ready to hit the trail from Murray to Spokane, 
whence I would take the cars to "the States/' I rode 
down the main street in Murray until I reached Bill 
Guse's place, where I knew that I would meet a number 
of the boys who were special friends. I dismounted, 
went into the saloon, and was quickly enacting the usual 
scene of leave-taking as it goes among miners. We 
kept two bartenders busy for an hour or more, and by 
that time I had taken my last drink — so I declared — and 
said my last "God bless you, old man! " in the town of 
Murray. 



The Bunker Hill and Sullivan. 55 

I was a little unsteady as I left the saloon, and I leaned 
against a lamp-post to brace up a bit before I attempted 
to mount Bronco Baldy, the best all-round trail-hitter 
I had ever owned, and whom I intended to present to 
"Uncle John" Davenport, who greatly admired the 
beast, when I reached Spokane. While leaning against 
the post I realized that a cold, drizzling rain had set in, 
and that it was getting late in the afternoon ; but I 
could make the eighty miles to Spokane by daybreak 
the next morning, and so I started toward Baldy just as 
a man on horseback came at full speed up the street, 
dashed in breakneck fashion to where I stood, threw 
himself from his horse, and said excitedly: 

" Now, Jim, I can pay you for those rubber boots and 
for all the good turns you have done me ! " 

The man was John Flaherty, a first-class miner and 
good fellow, who, like myself, had made and lost fortunes 
in Utah, the Black Hills and other districts. He was 
literally covered with mud, and his blown and foam- 
flecked horse showed that he had made a hard run. 
Flaherty was a quiet fellow, thoroughly reliable, knew 
indications when he saw them, and was not an enthu- 
siast. Now, however, he was awfully wrought up, as he 
continued : 

" Say, Jim, I have seen a mine what is a mine. I have 
. located both extensions, and I want you to go to work 
and git there as quick as you can. Come into Guse's 
and we'll talk it over." 

Flaherty had the nerve of an Irishman and a reputa- 
tion for cool-headedness under any circumstances ; but 
he trembled now, and I saw that his eyes blazed and 
that his face, where the mud spots did not hide it, was 
burning. I was sobered instantly, for I knew that 
something of extraordinary importance had occurred to 
so excite Jack Flaherty. From that moment I forgot 
my contemplated journey home as completely as though 
I had never prepared for it. 

We went into the saloon, retired to a little stall in the 
rear, and over a full bottle of what Guse was pleased 
to term " Walker's Rye," Flaherty described what he 
had seen. I quickly made a deal with him, ordered two 
quart-bottles of whiskey put into my blankets on Baldy, 
and received these directions : "Take the Jackass trail 



56 Jim Wardner. 

to Jackass Prairie and then turn to the left on to the old 
Mullan road. After you have hit the road for about 
six miles you will see some big blazes upon the trees to 
the right of the road. Hitch your horse there, because 
the down timber will stop him, and then go up the 
creek until you strike the camp. It's about two 
miles." 

Then we left the saloon and I was ready to start. By 
this time it was nearly dark, and the rain had changed 
to driving sleet and snow. Flaherty's story had excited 
me and I started down the road determined to reach 
the new " find " by daylight. The storm increased and 
became a violent blizzard by the time I reached Jackass 
Prairie ; but Baldy was good for his part of the trick, 
and at sunrise the storm ceased, and I had reached the 
place to leave my horse by the big trees. With the two 
bottles of whiskey in my coat pockets I started up the 
creek. The sun came up warm, the mountain air was 
that of spring, and my search for the camp was eager. 
My home trip did not even occur to me. In a turn in 
the canon, and just about two miles from the place I 
left Baldy — as Flaherty had said — I came upon a new- 
made camp. The boys were getting breakfast. My 
appearance was, of course, unexpected. As 1 stepped 
suddenly into view out of the trail, each of the three 
men — I knew them all intimately — uttered his own pe- 
culiar exclamation of surprise. " Jim Wardner," mixed 
with all sorts of d's, dashes, and h's and l's, greeted me. 
I lost no time in producing one of my bottles of whiskey. 
It may have been mighty poor liquor, but its effect was 
good, and I was at once a welcome guest instead of an 
unwelcome intruder. 

There were four personalities in that camp. In the 
order of their importance in the history of the discovery 
of one of the greatest of the world's mines of its class, 
they may be named : 

Kellogg's Jack — A diminutive but thoroughbred 
specimen of the Spanish jackass. He was mouse-col- 
ored, his head was nearly as large as his body, his ears, 
when he laid them back in obstinacy, reached his with- 
ers, and he was noted all through the Coeur d'Alene 
mountains as the best pack animal, although the most 
cunning and tricky brute that was ever cinched. 



The Bunker Hill and Sullivan. 57 

Mr. Kellogg — A quiet, intelligent man, one of the 
best prospectors in the mountains, one of the few men 
who stood you off from the familiarity of a nickname, 
and probably the only man in Idaho who was honored 
by the prefixed title of "Mr." I knew him long, inti- 
mately, and favorably, yet I never addressed him by his 
given name nor as " Kellogg/' but invariably as " Mr." 
Kellogg. 

Con Sullivan — The typical young Irishman. He 
was of the sort that have made the United States among 
the largest mineral producers of the countries of the 
world. Hopeful, enthusiastic and determined, it is 
Irish blood that makes the true and successful pros- 
pector. Tommy Cruse and Marcus Daly are merely 
representative examples of the best successes in every 
mining district. 

Phil O'Rourke — A fitting companion and "pardner" 
of Con Sullivan ; hardy, industrious and faithful. He 
had long been a prospector and was thoroughly familiar 
with the conditions that are necessary to make even a 
" bonanza " profitable. 

Such was the outfit that Peck & Cooper grubstaked, 
that discovered the Bunker Hill and Sullivan, and began 
the development of the Coeur d'Alene. 

To Kellogg's Jack's trick of losing himself when most 
needed, however, and to his alleged sagacity in know- 
ing a pay chute when he saw it, is due the discovery 
of the great mine ; and in " Dutch Jake's " famous resort 
in Spokane — where keno is run by electricity — there is 
a lifelike oil painting of the Jackass standing upon the 
apex of the Bunker Hill and gazing abstractedly across 
the canon to the glimmering outcroppings of the Sulli- 
van. One of the old-time concert-hall jingles had a 
refrain : 

1 * When you talk about the Coeur d 1 Alenes 
And all their wealth untold, 
Don't fail to mention ■ Kellogg's Jack,' 
Who did that wealth unfold ! " 

At about the second passing of the bottle the boys at 
the camp were mighty glad to see me ; we soon finished 
breakfast, and then Con Sullivan said : 

" Well, Jim, we don't know how you come to strike 
our trail, but w r e've got something here worth a long 



58 Jim Wardner. 

journey to see. Look up there ! " And, as he spoke, 
Sullivan pointed to the right-hand slope of the canon 
from the camp, just as the sun had risen to a point 
where its morning rays fell full upon the side of the 
mountain. What seemed to be a vast sheet of new tin 
dazzled the eyes. I had never seen such a sight before 
— nor since. 

"Galena," I said. 

" That's what," replied O'Rourke. 

Then we all started up the trail, and I soon stood upon 
the outcroppings of the greatest blowout of argentifer- 
ous galena ever known. The vein was so well defined 
that I could easily determine its course down the side of 
the canon and its continuation up the opposite slope to 
the outcrop on the Bunker Hill. I was amazed, but I 
made no comments. 

" It was this a- way," began Mr. Kellogg ; " the d d 

Jack shook us one night at the mouth of the creek, and 
the next morning we started out to find him. His tracks 
were plain, and now and then we found great wads of 
his hair where he had climbed over the down timber and 
scraped his sides against the logs. How under the 
heavens the little devil managed to get through that 
place I can't tell ; but after we got into the cafion 
proper his trail was easy. Looking across the creek we 
saw the Jack standing upon the side of the hill, and ap- 
parently gazing intently across the canon at some object 
which attracted his attention. We went up the slope 
after him, expecting that, as usual, he would give us a 
hard chase ; but he never moved as we approached. 
His ears were set forward, his eyes were fixed upon 
some object, and he seemed wholly absorbed. Reaching 
his side, we were astounded to find the Jackass standing 
upon a great outcropping of mineralized vein-matter 
and looking in apparent amazement at the marvelous 
ore chute across the canon, which then, as you now see 
it, was reflecting the sun's rays like a mirror. Jack 
fairly heaved a sigh of relief as he heard our vigorous 
comments. We lost no time in making our locations, 
and where the Jack stood we called it the Bunker Hill, 
and the big chute we named the Sullivan, in honor of 
Con." 

" I had mined in Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, 



The Bunker Hill and Sullivan. 59 

the Black Hills and Colorado ; I was at Virginia City 
when the Comstock was in its glory ; but I had never 
seen a " showing " equal to the exposure in the Sullivan. 
There seemed to be almost countless tonnage of what 
looked like a very high grade galena upon the very sur- 
face of the ground. My thoughts were running like 
mad — how could I get in on the original layout ? 

"Well, boys, how many locations have you got in 
all ? " I asked, after expressing my pleasure at their 
great luck. 

" We've located 3,000 feet," replied Mr. Kellogg, " as 
far as we could follow the lead." 

" And that is enough to ' represent ' and to make us 
all we want," said O'Rourke. 

" So you have simply made two locations on the vein, 
and nothing more," I suggested. 

"That's what," Sullivan answered; "but you bet 
we're dead sure "we've got all there is in this camp." 

The boys went at their work, and I said that I guessed 
I would stroll around a bit. There was a small hand- 
axe among the tools lying about, and I told Con that I 
would take it with me, for I might need it to blaze my 
trail. Then I went down the slope to the creek. It 
was a fine mountain stream (Milo Creek), carrying sev- 
eral hundred inches of water. I got out of sight of the 
boys, and then as quietly as possible I cut away the bark 
from a big fir tree on the creek bank and gradually 
worked a smooth surface upon the wood. Then I took 
out from my pocket an old stub of a lead pencil and 
wrote upon the tree a full and complete location of all 
the water in the stream. To make the location perfect, 
I needed a witness, and therefore, upon the completion 
of the declaration, I walked out from the shelter of the 
trees and shouted to the boys to come down to the creek, 
as I had something to show them. They came at once, 
thinking I must have made a discovery — which I had — 
and I led them up to the tree, upon which my location 
was plainly written and legally worded. 

Each of the three men was thoroughgoing and prac- 
tical. Each knew that the best mine on earth might 
prove worthless without the aid of water. Each real- 
ized at once that I had a cinch upon all future possibil- 
ities. Their exclamations were varied, but emphatic. 



60 Jim Wardner. 

u You see," said Sullivan, " in our bull-headed hurry 
we forgot all about the water. Well, Jim, you've got the 
drop on, us,. and it's all right." Then, like a man, he 
took the stub of pencil, and walked up and put his name 
to the location as a witness. 

" We don't know as much as the off ear of that Jack- 
ass ! " was Mr. Kellogg's comment, as he, too, signed 
the notice. 

" Now, boys," I said, " here's a fresh bottle (hauling 
out the second quart from my pocket). Let's take a 
drink to Jim Wardner, who, you will find, is the best 
partner any of you have ever had ; for these mines and 
this water are inseparable. Let's go down to the camp 
and talk things over." 

After arriving at the camp I proceeded to explain 
things from my point of view : 

14 You are good enough miners," I began, "to know 
that neither the burnt-out croppings of the Bunker 
Hill nor even the very wonderful 40-feet wide blowout 
of galena upon the Sullivan is positive assurance of 
great wealth to the outfit. We don't know anything 
yet about the values carried, but we do know that so 
large a mass of galena would not be apt to carry any 
fabulous silver value. We are one hundred miles from 
a railway and more than one thousand miles to a 
smelter. The stuff has got to run like a scared wolf to 
be worth packing out. I know that you are all broke, 
and that you need, most of all, a little ready money ; 
and that is where I come in strong, because I will give 
•you $500 now, and I have got more than $15,000 in 
Hussey's bank at Murray, which I am ready to blow in 
on this layout. But I want to manage things in my own 
way. My plan would be to get things fixed right for 
work as soon as possible. I will take samples and go to 
Spokane, and will arrange, if the ore has value to war- 
rant it, for immediate mining, building of roads, ship- 
ping, etc. In the meantime, you are to promise me 
that no other person shall have any option or opportu- 
nity upon this property until I have decided what can be 
done and what is best to do for all concerned." 

Pledges over the last of the whiskey were made, 
and then we went up to the Sullivan to get samples. 
We had no bags, and so Con Sullivan took his overalls 



The Bunker Hill and Sullivan. 61 

and quickly converted them into first-rate saddle-bags. 
We put about twenty pounds of ore in each leg, and 
then the boys accompanied me down to where Baldy 
was impatiently awaiting my arrival. I turned the cayuse 
loose to graze for an hour, the boys returned to camp, 
and then I proceeded to post a notice locating 10,000 
inches of water in the Coeur d'Alene River. I may 
mention here that I subsequently disposed of the two 
water rights that I located that day for $50,000. I 
struck out for Spokane that night and reached there the 
following afternoon. Assays showed high silver value, 
and I started as quickly as possible for San Francisco to 
consult Selby & Co. That concern immediately agreed 
to take all the ore of the class represented by the 
sample that could be furnished, and at a price which 
would leave a very large margin of profit. Back I hur- 
ried to Spokane, thence to the mine. The boys had 
built a comfortable camp, but had not worked to any 
extent upon the ore chute. I at once contracted with 
them to take out 25,000 tons of ore and to advance to 
them $5 upon each ton extracted, they to take out not 
less than twenty tons daily. Then I began road build- 
ing and planning for shipping the ore to the railway. I 
was expending more than $500 per day. 

The men began work in earnest upon the ore-body. 
It did not require many days' work, however, at twenty 
tons per day, to make us all sick, for every stroke of the 
pick and every blast demonstrated more and more that 
the marvelous surface showing was nothing but a big 
blowout. We took out every pound of that ore, and, all 
told, it was less than eight hundred tons. When we 
found the bunch exhausted, I may say that the general 
disappointment was even more intense than th' exalta- 
tion had been when the Sullivan was discovered. 

"We might have known better than to have faith 

in anything that d d Jackass led us to," was 

O' Rourke's only comment. 

When the ore was exhausted we found that the vein 
itself was an enormous contact, and that seams and 
stringers of galena were going down. I proposed that 
work should continue. The ore which had been taken 
out yielded me about $115 per ton, and I was deter- 
mined to spend my last dollar in the endeavor to find 



62 Jim Wardner, 

the permanent ore chttte which I felt sure would be 
found. With me it was simply a question of time and 
money. So the work went on. My money melted 
away ; I was overdrawn in all my bank accounts ; I 
owed the men about $3,000 — and the face in the main 
tunnel looked absolutely barren. I became worn and 
thin, and the skin upon my hands and face was so drawn 
that it seemed transparent. One afternoon I walked a 
little way up the canon, seated myself upon a boulder, 
and began to wonder if I was really sane. I clenched 
my hands in anger at myself for broken pledges to my 
faithful, confiding and patient wife. I noticed that 
specks of blood had oozed through the skin 
upon my hands (they were so tightly clenched and 
my skin was so drawn), and I said to myself : " So you 
are actually sweating blood ; but that is no atonement 
for your folly, Jim." Suddenly I felt an impulse to run 
down the canon, as though I would escape from the 
surroundings, the failure and the debts to the men. I 
started ; I came to the tree upon which was the notice 
of my first water right ; I laughed aloud — I do not know 
why. Then I went on hurriedly, and it came to me that 
I would not stop until I reached Spokane. I got below 
the camp, and was increasing my speed, when I came 
unexpectedly upon a newly-pitched tent, near which was 
a pleasant-voiced man, who said : " Stranger, you seem 
in a hurry. Come in and take something as a starter 
for the new gin-mill. " 

I never accepted an invitation with greater alacrity or 
thankfulness. I went into the tent, poured a whiskey 
glass full to the brim, and gulped it down with the 
remark : " I am Jim Wardner, the boss of this outfit." 

That was enough to make my immediate deliverer 
protest that I must "have one with him." And I took 
it — a big one. Then I heard a shout, "Wardner ! " It 
came from a good pair of lungs, and it echoed up the 
canon. I stepped outside the tent and saw Brady, my 
foreman, coming down the trail at full speed. He saw 
me, and shouted: " Hurry up, Jim ; we've struck it big 
in the main tunnel. The breast is solid ore ! " His voice 
fairly choked with excitement. Instantly I was as cool 
and deliberate as I ever was in my life. 

"Oh, don't get excited, Brady. Of course you've 



The Bunker Hill and Sullivan. 6$ 

struck it ; what have we been driving that tunnel for ? 
Come down and get a drink," was my answer. 

Then I said to Tom Erwin (as I later knew my deliv- 
erer to be): " Here ! give us all a good one ; and, Brady, 
take another — you're too excited." 

I walked along slowly up the trail, and told Brady not 
to rush so — but I did want to rest my eyes upon that 
tunnel face ! Well, I found that the boys had broken 
into a solid chute of galena for the full size of the drift. 
It was a wonderful sight. After going in on it a little 
way I started a cross-cut, and the chute proved to be 
thirty-six feet wide. Then we drove the drift night and 
day. I had forty men at work, and after running one 
hundred feet on the vein we cross-cut again. It was 
still thirty-six feet strong. I took ton samples of the ore 
taken from the drift, and soon discovered that, while the 
ore-body was marvelous in its dimensions, the values 
were cut down to a concentrating proposition. Having 
become certain upon that point, I started on foot for 
Spokane. There I borrowed $300 from Walter Bean, 
and began an attempt to induce capital to take hold of 
what I believed to be one of the most desirable invest- 
ments ever offered. No one in Spokane would take the 
trouble to even visit the mine. I went to San Francisco 
— and failed. Then I tried Portland in vain. I knew 
that an active young fellow named Austin (since then 
inventor of the pyritic smelting process) was running a 
little smelter at Toston, Mont., for an English syndicate, 
and I thought perhaps I could get him to interest his 
company in my project. So I went to Toston. I found 
Austin to be an expert on ores. After examining my 
samples and making tests, he declared that, if my state- 
ments as to the mine were true, I had the biggest concen- 
trating proposition in the country. "You go up to 
Helena and see Governor Sam Hauser," advised Austin. 
To Helena I went. I called upon Governor Hauser at 
the First National Bank, of which he was the president. 
He received me in his private parlor. I showed him my 
samples and told him about the mine. When I had 
finished he broke out in the only and original Sam 
Hauser style : 

" What in are you telling me, young man ? Look 

here, I'm from Missouri, where they raise mules and 



64 Jitn Wardner. 

liars, and I am a good judge of both, and I will say right 
now that^as an all-round liar you can beat any man I 
ever listened to." 

But that was only Governor Hauser's way. I saw 
that he was really interested, and I went on and argued 
what the results would be if a ioo-ton concentrator was 
put up. I told him that I could secure a contract to 
concentrate 50,000 tons at $5 per ton, and also a share in 
the net profits. The final result was that Governor 
Hauser gave his expert $10,000, ordered him to accom- 
pany me to the Coeur d'Alene, and, if he verified my 
statements, to pay off the men and secure the contracts. 
We made a rush trip to the mines and back to Helena, 
the expert having indorsed my every statement, and 
Governor Hauser ordered the machinery for a 100-ton 
concentrator. 

Then things came my way with a rush. The work in 
every department was pushed, and the mine develop- 
ment was showing bigger and better with every foot of 
progress. Capital began to look toward the Bunker Hill 
and Sullivan and the Coeur d' Alene. A lively town was 
started, and it was named Wardner. I had lots of 
friends and was again a favorite of fortune. To me was 
given the credit of making the Coeur d'Alene country a 
success — and I didn't sweat blood any more. Soon 
nearly everybody in the mining line who had capital 
was looking for investments in our booming district. 
The opportunity came for a big sale of the Bunker Hill 
and Sullivan, and the great mine passed from my con- 
trol forever. What I received for my water rights, con- 
tracts, interest, etc., amounted to a reasonable fortune. 
Governor Hauser was also to the good a hundred thou- 
sand or so — and still believes in his ability to judge 
mules and liars. 

On one occasion, when I was telling the story of my 
fortunes in the Coeur d'Alene country, my friend Nor- 
throp said, with surprise : " Can't see how a man can 
make and then lose a hundred thousand dollars." 

Here's the solution: The man with good sound judg- 
ment and a reasonable-sized head, once in possession of 
a hundred thousand dollars does not lose it. He it is 
who works the " snowball racket " on his pile. 

But the shoddy man, the lucky shoddy man, the man 



The Bunker Hill and Sullivan. 65 

who never before had a hundred dollars, a man who 
begins to feel poor when he gets the first $50,000, a man 
who constantly and wilfully and determinedly persists in 
getting over his head in the confusing waters of specu- 
lation, who belittles the size of his pile, as he associates 
with millionaires, joins in their schemes and buys their 
stock ; the shoddy man, who looks " wise as a forest 
of owls," and believing he is great because he has been 
lucky; he who gives bad advice and refuses good ; he 
who has an expense account, that, like the impending ava- 
lanche, will snowslide him to poverty ; he it is who loses 
a hundred thousand dollars. Not one in a thousand of 
these fellows ever make it back. Their time is now 
occupied in thinking of their past greatness,and they drift 
along Time's rapid stream until they whirl into the 
vortex of despair. 

Northrop says, "You have handled the subject pretty 
fairly and it is one you should know all about." 

The history of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan is an ex- 
cellent illustration of the difficulties encountered by 
those who, with limited capital, attempt to make a mine. 
It also furnishes reasons for believing that many mines 
now abandoned would become profitable if reasonable 
development work were done upon them. 

When the original discoverers finally made a compe- 
tency out of the sale of the mine, Con Sullivan said to 
O'Rourke, u Say, Phil, Kellogg's Jack is a long-headed 
fellow, isn't he ?" 

And upon his death the Jackass was buried with 
greater honor than had ever before been accorded to 
any of his kind. 

The Bunker Hill and Sullivan is still one of the impor- 
tant productive mines in the Coeur d' Alene district. The 
largest stockholder in the company owning it is Mr. D. O. 
Mills, of New York City. It is believed that the mine 
improves with development, and that it will continue 
productive for many years to come. 

I will state that during the life of the contract my in- 
terest in the property was one dollar a ton on each ton 
of ore that was extracted from the mine and one-third 
of the profits of the mine ; I received also $50,000 for 
both water rights. After the sale a number of very 
curious incidents occurred. 



66 Jim Wardner. 

The evening after the sale, desiring to purchase a lit- 
tle jewelry, I stepped into one of the jewelry stores of 
Spokane. Here I found that nearly each and every one 
of the men had been that day a purchaser of diamonds ; 
in fact, they wore diamonds in great shape; not only did 
they themselves wear diamonds, but they evinced a most 
generous spirit toward their old friends in Wardner 
and Spokane. My daughters had to thank Mr. Philip 
O'Rourke for his first checks, Nos. i, 2 and 3, for $1,000 
each, and Mr. Kellogg, not to be outdone, gave the boys 
the same amount. 

From the time of the bonding of the Bunker Hill and 
Sullivan mine until the owners received their money, 
there elapsed only about eleven days. During that time 
I had visited Helena, Thompson Falls, Murray, and 
Spokane. Governor Hauser thought that the selling of 
the property at that time would be an absolute impos- 
sibility, and so he expressed himself ; but everything 
was in my favor and I was on the rail of fortune and 
could-not be switched off. Thus we are all of us riding 
along on an endless chain of destiny, working in a groove 
forged by the Almighty, and when the chain is severed 
by the drum of time, down we go to the dump of 
eternity. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

WARDNER, IDAHO. 

The story of the periodical fortunes of Jim Wardner, 
of Wardner, Idaho, would hardly be complete without 
a chapter on the town of Wardner and some of Jim 
Wardner's experiences in connection with it. This 
town was laid out by a gentleman whom we will call 
Judge Kelly. After the surveying of it with a tape line, 
the numbers of the lots were all put into a hat and he 
who paid $2.50 had the choice of a lot. It was generally 
understood that one man had one choice, but there was 
no limit to the amount of proxies he could hold. My 
drawing. was not a success and I afterward sold my lot 
for $5, it being really farthest from the post-office on 
the old town plot. 

Prosperity now set in in good earnest ; other discov- 
eries were made, other mines were opened, and hun- 
dreds of people flocked into the camp. Among them 
came many of the gambling fraternity and that class 
which you always find first in a good mining camp. As 
an example, the following notice appeared in the Ward- 
ner News in the summer of '85 ; 

GEORGE B. Mc SHOWS THE BOYS HOW TO 

PLAY FARO. 

(t The game in Josh Collins' place opened Friday at 
one o'clock and did not close until Monday. During 
that time there were some of the heaviest plays ever 

made in the Northwest. George B. Mc , the banker 

and Bonanza Mine owner, indulged in a little diversion 
from the dull routine of business and tried his hand at 
faro. He sat down to the game early Friday evening, 
played all night, and lost several thousand dollars. The 
next day he complained that the limit was too low for a 
man of his nerve and means. The limit was removed 
entirely, and George piled up $1,000 and $1,200 at a 



68 Jim Wardner, 

time and won and lost it as nonchalantly as he refuses 
Irishmen work. By ten o'clock the next day he had lost 
$16,000 ; still he continued to play and bet from $100 to 
$1,000 at each turn. After twelve o'clock on Saturday 
his luck changed and he accumulated in front of him 
most of the checks that were in the rack. At three 
o'clock he cashed in and found that he had won back all 
but $1,500 of the money that he had played in. He sat 
nearly twenty-four hours in front of the case-keeper 
and played faro. Such large stakes are not wagered 
here every day, but it is safe to say that there is more 
gambling* for bigger stakes at Wardner than in any 
town of its size in the Northwest." 

My first venture in the town of Wardner, Idaho, was 
corraling all the corner lots. My assistant, Mr. Horace 
Davenport, and myself soon accomplished this, and in 
four weeks from the time we unloaded at a profit of about 
$10,000. 

I next founded the Bank of Wardner. The bank con- 
sisted of an inconspicuous shack, a portable safe, a 
chicken-coop netting for the protection of the cashier, a 
private office about as big as a cheese-box, and my 
credit in Spokane, where I kept my money on deposit. 
This bank was not highly quoted at first, as I purchased 
a safe on a year's time, paying in installments. The 
bank, however, flourished. I was the president and 
Mr. Kellogg was vice-president. George Crane and 
E. C. Gove were the directors. Horace Davenport was 
cashier. This was his first experience in the banking 
business. It was not difficult to make loans, especially 
to the officers and directors. 



♦Speaking about gambling, my friend Johnny Manning, now a Klondike 
millionaire, kept the Senate saloon in Deadwood in '77 and '78. He is, like 
myself, a firm believer in the laws of general average. To test and prove 
our belief, the fate of a deuce was tried and tallied at one of his faro tables 
for one thousand consecutive deals. After all the varieties of chance— some- 
times losing, again equalizing, then losing, then equalizing — at the end of the 
thousandth deal the deuce had won twenty times more than it had lost. My 
friend John Mahan, a veteran dealer, tabbed the whole record, and he is a 
firm believer that this curious equalization of luck would last to the end of 
time. 

I ask, What is it ? What is the law of general average that controls 
chance ? What is this general law of nature that installs itself in the prop- 
agation of all animals, birds and fishes ? That imprints itself on the seasons? 
That invests itself into all men's lives, and, finally, fixes itself on all games 
of chance ? Call it luck ; call it chance ; call it fatality ; these it is. It is a 
strong product in our fatalistic career, making true the words of Robert 
Ingersoll, who said : " Nothing has ever been done under the blue dome of 
Heaven that could possibly have been avoided.'" 



Wardner, Idaho. 69 

One day Mr. Davenport came to me and said that he 
was tired of running the bank on wind. 

I said, " Horace, how much money have you got in 
there ? " 

He said, "About $175 ; and a party will soon present 
a check for $900 ; in fact, he has already been to the 
window and I have detained him until your arrival. He 
has been quite put out because the check could not be 
cashed, and advised me if I could not pay to close the 
doors." 

Horace Davenport again handed in his resignation. 
I told him when the gentleman returned to send him to 
the president's office. I awaited his arrival. Presently 
the gentleman came in and presented his check for 
$900. " I won't pay this," said I. 

" You won't pay it ? " exclaimed the astonished de- 
positor. " Haven't I $900 in this bank?" 

" Yes, but I won't pay it, just the same." 

Well, that fellow was hot, and amidst a series of tin- 
mentioned explosives he said, "If your blanked old 
bank is busted, you'd better close up." 

" This bank is all right, and as solid as the rock of 
Gibraltar," said I. " Now use business sense and judg- 
ment. I always took you for a man who believed in 
helping along home industries. Can't you see that in- 
stead of drawing the money out of this bank, if you 
paid for your cattle with drafts on Spokane, the Bank of 
Wardner would make one per cent, out of the operation? 
Nine hundred dollars is not much to this bank, but I 
wish to establish a financial precedent." 

He cooled down, bought the drafts, and the bank was 
saved; and it never did break while under my manage- 
ment. But the trials and tribulations of a bank presi- 
dent are great. I would continually refuse the right 
man and loan money to the wrong man, and when it 
got so that I had to keep guard with a shotgun to keep 
off borrowing directors, I just quit. 

But talk about your Jim Crow bankers and financial 
acrobats, my friend Sam Lichtenstadter, of Ruby, Oka- 
nogan, takes the bakery. Fully appreciating his genius 
I intended to have him collaborate with me. Sam lo- 
cated in Ruby, 160 miles from Spokane. In those days 
to transport money between that point and Spokane 



70 Jim Wardner. 

cost money, Ed. Cowan, the gifted Western writer, 
narrates the following : 

" His (Lichtenstadter's) plan when formed was to give 
to Ruby all the benefits of an abundant circulating me- 
dium, without imposing on the community the hardship 
of a heavy discount for carriage. At least such is the 
philanthropic explanation of his purpose at this remote 
day. He began by establishing his place of final re- 
demption at a Spokane bank through which he trans- 
acted his mercantile business. Then he ordered several 
thousand artistically lithographed checks — pink paper — 
made payable in Spokane to bearer, meantime having 
put in a safe with the conventional country cage and 
hoisted the sign of ' The Bank of Ruby/ 

" The system Lichtenstadter was about to carry into 
effect may be readily understood. To all depositors and 
on all exchange or credits he issued his personal check 
against his own credit in far-away Spokane. The sign 
having been swung prematurely — that is to say, before 
the pretty pink checks arrived — a man named Keene 
appeared with a huge gold nugget as big as one's hand, 
in exchange for which he desired to get $250 in money. 
But the young banker had not enough bills or coin to 
cover the value of the nugget, and in this predicament 
he told Keene, as a reason why he could not accommo- 
date him, that the Bank of Ruby was a bank of deposit 
only. 

"At this critical point in the unique career of the 
Bank of Ruby, when the blossoming scheme was threat- 
ened with the blight of scandal, when there was danger 
of a run against it before it had secured a depositor, a 
mining operator who was going into the mountains for 
a few weeks walked in and confided to the young bank- 
er's keeping a goodly sum of cash. After he had left, 
Lichtenstadter explained to Keene that he was only 
1 joshing ' him, and meant all the time to help him out 
with the cash, which he did, and took the nugget. Next 
day the bundle of pink checks arrived by stage and the 
new bank was saved. 

" During its singular existence the Bank of Ruby, 
otherwise known as Sam Lichtenstadter's, issued nearly 
$300,000 in checks, payable to bearer at Spokane, and at 
times held as much as $35,000 in deposits. Few of these 



Wardner y Idaho. 71 

checks found their way to Spokane. They passed as 
currency throughout Okanogan county and as far north 
as Penticton, B. C. They were acceptable to people in 
all occupations and to the county government. The 
first oddity that surprised the visitor to the county was 
the omnipresent pink check. 

" One day a mine buyer appeared at the bank with a 
draft for $10,000. 

" ' I'll cash this for you/ said Lichtenstadter, * but I'll 
have to discount it 5 per cent/ 

" The holder savagely protested that he didn't pro- 
pose to be robbed in this outrageous manner. 

" ' That is what it costs me to bring money into the 
county/ explained the banker placidly, ' but if you like, 
I'll issue my personal checks against the draft in all 
fractional amounts you may desire, and they will serve 
you just as well as gold.' 

"The holder wouldn't listen to such a proposition. 
But everywhere he went he saw the pink checks mov- 
ing about with the freedom and credit of gold certifi- 
cates, and finally, convinced that they were the money 
of final redemption of the camp, he returned to the bank 
and exchanged his draft for a pocketful of them. 

" When depositors checked against themselves pay- 
ment was made by pink check, and the pink checks were 
received as cash deposits. Thus the circulation was 
made rotary and complete. Such was the confidence in 
these checks that when the banker reached the time of 
final liquidation one old rancher was found in the moun- 
tains who had stored away $1,250 worth of them, and he 
was so skeptical when advised to go to Ruby and get 
his cash, because the bank was closing, that he declined 
to do so, and the money for the redemption of the checks 
had to be sent to him by special messenger. 

" The failure of the Spokane National Bank and the 
simultaneous collapse of the Okanogan mining boom 
caused the downfall of the Bank of Ruby, which re- 
deemed every pink check that could be drummed up. 
In the last analysis $3,000 worth of them had evaporated. 
In other words, the shrinkage of the pink check circu- 
lation of Okanogan county for a period of five years 
represented a little less than 10 per cent, of the maxi- 
mum deposits or redemption fund and a little more 



72 Jim Wardner. 

than i per cent, of the total issue of circulating 
medium." 

Speaking about these good old days of 1886 in Ward- 
ner, Idaho, makes me remember with pleasure " Uncle 
John " Davenport, who is among the most liberal of men. 
He will not only give away all that he hath himself, but 
also all that his friends and neighbors have. 

I returned to my cabin once on a cold winter night 
and found my little stove and bed clothes gone. " Uncle 
John" had given them to a needy woman. 

In due time, "Uncle John" went away, and when he 
returned and found that I had leased his comfortable 
cabin and fixtures to a poor and deserving woman from 
the Black Hills, and when he saw a fine sign, " Laun- 
dry," over his own door, he enjoyed it hugely. I told 
him that " He who giveth unto the poor lendeth unto 
the Lord," and he said he would waive all interest. 
And these are they who make up our mining camps. 

Early in 1888 " Uncle John" C. Davenport and my- 
self were examining a gold prospect about five miles 
from Nelson, B. C, owned by Mr. Nail, and called the 
Poor Man. It was really a Dick Nailer, a crack-a-jack, 
as Col. John Burke would say ; a Lulu is the word of 
Geo. Pfunder, and a bird it would be in my vocabulary. 
He wanted to buy it and so did I. Coming down the 
hill together, I said : " John, you want the Poor Man, 
and so do I. It won't pay to bid against each other ; 
Nail's price is high enough, viz., $35,000 for a baby 
mine. Ill tell you what I'll do ; I'll play you seven-up, 
best two out of three, seven points each. He who wins, 
stays; he who loses, goes." 

" Uncle John " was the boss at seven-up. I came 
" pretty near winning," as Dutch Jake says. In fifteen 
minutes I steamed away on the little steamer Idaho, 
which was there awaiting one of us for a passenger. 
" Uncle John " Davenport taught me whist and kept me 
poor. God bless him ! May he live long and may the 
Poor Man still continue to enrich him ! is my wish. > 

Wardner, Idaho, grew and prospered ; 1886 was an 
eventful year. The Bunker Hill and Sullivan was 
booming along, the concentrator was under process of 
construction, and I was sitting in my cabin when I was 
accosted by a gentleman on a good-looking mule.. 



Wardner, Idaho. 73 

" Is your name Wardner, and are you running this 
big mine ? I want to go and take a look at it— want to 
sample it. You had better take that gunny sack along 
and a pick, too. How far is it up there V 

I told him and we started up. I picked up the gunny 
sack, and after he had sampled the heavy lead ore care- 
fully, I holding the sack and he dropping the pieces of 
lead ore into it, some weighing many pounds, we re- 
turned to my cabin. He concluded the load was too 
heavy to pack on behind his saddle and that he would 
" sample it down." I therefore grabbed the sack by 
the ears and emptied the contents on the ground, when 
lo and behold ! out dropped a stick of giant powder No. 
2. We had both of us been deliberately trying to com- 
mit suicide all day. I Cannot exactly remember what 
Mr. D. C. Corbin said. He was very much affected. 
However, drawing from his pocket the left hind foot of 
a rabbit killed in the dark of the moon, he mused and 
grunted : " How much is D. C. Corbin indebted to that 
rabbit foot ? Ask him." 

Before he left he gave me instructions in regard to 
the right of way for a railroad. In a week his survey- 
ors were on the ground ; in a month the railroad was 
commenced^ and in less than four months I was ship- 
ping my ore by rail. 

Mr. Corbin has since built many miles of railroad. 
The whole mining country near Spokane and in British 
Columbia is indebted for its prosperity more to 
the efforts of D. C. Corbin than any other man that 
I know of. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

STRIKES MADE BY CURIOUS MEANS. 

The discovery of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan by a 
Spanish jackass reminds me of two other instances in 
which rich strikes were due to other than human agen- 
cies. The first occurred in Okanogan county, Idaho, 
September 18, 1892, and is as follows : 

Two prospectors, Redmond and Herrick, were out 
hunting and prospecting, and they had with them a 
bird dog named Skookum. They were working through 
the Salmon River Basin. When they came over a hill and 
looked down into a little ravine with a brook running 
through the bottom, they saw in a bush overhanging 
the brook a pheasant, at which one of the men shot. 
The bird fell into the water and the dog Skookum 
started after it. As he scrambled back with it in his 
mouth, his paw pulled down some soft green moss from 
the rock at the side of the stream. The prospectors 
noticed that the stone showed white under the moss. 
They made an examination and found it to be gold- 
bearing quartz. They followed the lead and located 
two claims. 

Well, I had been for some time looking for that sort 
of ore, and so I bonded the two claims, and with them 
included the black dog Skookum. Thus, you see, that 
again by a lucky circumstance a dog's paw did for the 
Red Jacket what the jackass's ears did for the Sullivan. 

I soon sold this mine for a healthy little sum and 
turned my attention to the development and exploita- 
tion of another mine which I got under similar curious 
circumstances. 

Frank Austin was a ranch hand working in a logging 
camp near Snohomish, and had a small shack located on 
a homestead. He supported his family by working in 
the camp, and hoped eventually to prove upon his land. 



Strikes Made by Curious Means. 75 

He was not a miner and never thought much about 
mines. 

One night he dreamed of a region of yellow gold and 
bright silver. Surface views showed the precious met- 
als in large quantities. The dream was so vivid that all 
the surrounding objects were thoroughly impressed on 
his memory. All the next day he kept thinking about 
his dream. He tried to convince himself that he was 
not a superstitious man, but he told his wife of his 
dream, and she, too, was much surprised with the cir- 
cumstances. He had no money to go out prospecting, 
but one day he saw me, and called me aside and re- 
peated his story. I laughed as he told me, yet after as- 
suring myself that the fellow w r as honest, I pulled out a 
large roll of bills which I always carried, and gave 
him some, telling him if he thought he could find any- 
thing he might try. A month afterward I received a 
letter telling me a rich mine had been discovered. 

The peculiar part of it is that the Alpha mine was on 
a ledge where neither gold nor silver had ever been 
found before, and Austin discovered it just as it ap- 
peared to him in his dream. 

All this goes to show that luck often plays a promi- 
nent part in striking it rich, which, if I may be per- 
mitted to compare great things with small, recalls the 
following incident. Until this occurred I had been a 
firm believer in the old adage, " Honesty is the best 
policy." It was on the Northern Pacific Railroad, the 
first day out of Seattle, on one of my flights across the 
continent. I had spent a very pleasant evening in the 
smojdng compartment of the Pullman and was about 
retiring to my berth when, lo and behold, as I 
reached about the middle of the car, there lay imme- 
diately in front of my toes a great, big, fat pocketbook. 
At the same time something else met my vision. It 
was a pair of red stockings sticking out from under the 
curtains of the berth to my right; and I got the impres- 
sion that the owner of the red stockings was also the 
owner of the pocketbook. Picking up the pocketbook, 
I thrust it through the folds of the curtains, restoring 
the book, as I thought, to the owner. Now, all this was 
a matter of impulse, or honesty, call it which you will, 
but it caused me a sleepless night, partly from regret 



76 Jim Wardner. 

for having given tip the boodle and partly from fear 
that the man with the red stockings was not the origi- 
nal owner. 

Well, the next day in the dining-car a gentleman with 
red stockings, which were plainly to be seen over the 
tops of his low shoes, was enjoying with friend that 
best of all good things, a great, big, cold bottle of 
Mumm's Extra Dry. Later in the day we became ac- 
quainted, and the fruits of our acquaintance were an- 
other bottle of Mumm's, and still another. Then my 
new-found friend became loquacious, and finally con- 
fidential. He told me of the " funniest experience of 
his life," and after having dilated fully on his good luck, 
here is what he said : 

" Say, look here ; I don't mind telling you confiden- 
tially that I had the d 1 time of my life last night. 

Just going to bed ; just got my shoes off, and if some 
fool didn't go and shove a pocketbook right into my 
hand and went away, never saying a word." 

" Is that so ? " said I. " Was there anything in the 
book?" 

" Well, I guess there was," said he. "An even hun- 
dred bucks." 

" Have you got the book ? " says I. 

"Not much," says he, "but I've got the contents." 

"Well," I says, "I am the fool that gave you that 
pocketbook, and I want fifty bucks right now." He 
handed them over after considerable expostulation. And 
the strange part of the story is that we never found the 
owner. 

The man who lost the pocketbook, in all probability, 
got off at Spokane. Well, I did not make any serious 
efforts to find him, yet if he is alive and reads this ac- 
count and can give his name, and if he needs it more 
than I do, he can have my share ; and the man with the 
red stockings has cheerfully agreed to follow suit. 



CHAPTER XV. 

A GREWSOME AWAKENING. 

To have a well-filled pocketbook thrust upon you 
doesn't often occur, but, speaking of odd happenings, 
my old friend, the Hon. Alexander McKenzie, who has 
filled many official positions of trust, and is universally 
known and respected throughout North and South 
Dakota, told me a good one on himself one day. At 
the time of this event he was the sheriff of Burleigh 
county, in North Dakota, and resided in Bismarck. 
His duties caused many a long ride over hard roads and 
prairies, swimming streams, and climbing steep ascents. 
It was on one of these chases for criminals in the vicin- 
ity of the Missouri River, that, tired and weary, he un- 
saddled his horse at mid-day to refresh himself at a 
stream and have a few moments' rest in the shade of a 
little tree. Tying his horse by the bridle rein to this 
tree, he lay down and dozed off to sleep. 

The cayuse, however, would not have it that way. 
Uneasy and restive, like all cayuses, he pulled and 
jerked backward, and this caused a swaying of the tree. 
Mr. McKenzie was suddenly awakened by heavy ob- 
jects falling upon and around him. The cayuse was 
still pulling, and finally the sheriff ran for safety to es- 
cape a perfect shower of human hands, feet and heads. 

The fact of the matter was that the cayuse had stood 
there and deliberately shaken down an old Indian 
graveyard. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

"shorty." 

After the sale of Bunker Hill and Sullivan came a 
discovery of gold mines in the South Fork. Mr. Ber- 
nard Goldsmith and I invested heavily in these proper- 
ties. I quote from a Spokane newspaper in the month 
of August, 1887 : "Through the indomitable energy 
and perseverance of James F. Wardner, Spokane Falls 
has had $250,000 invested in buildings and improve- 
ments within her limits. This same genius now turns 
from the baser metal and gives the neglected gold mines 
of the matchless South Fork the benefit of his energy, 
wisdom, and experience, and behold the result ! Can 
too much praise be given the hardy prospector who 

" Opens the vault where the gold-dust shines, 
And gives us the key to the silver mines ?" 

These properties were not a success financially. 

In connection with them, however, I must tell you 
about " Shorty. 

" Shorty " was a case. In the summer of 1888 he was 
general utility man of the Alma and Nellie Wood mines, 
situated about six miles from the town of Wardner, 
Idaho. I was at that time general manager. It hap- 
pened that one of the tunnels caved in and buried un- 
der the d6bris a poor unfortunate German, the first fatal 
accident that had occurred during my administration 
and the only accident that ever occurred in any mine 
with the management of which I was connected during 
my long years in the business. 

Well, " Shorty " was the one who was to superintend 
the funeral of the German — digging the grave, making 
arrangements with the undertaker, summoning the per- 
son who was to read the burial service, and the rest. 
But somehow everything went wrong with "Shorty." 



" Shorty r 79 

There was a hitch from the start. The burial place 
was on the summit of a divide, and the cayuses shied 
and balked in the most unceremonious manner. Arriv- 
ing at the grave, " Shorty " was again put to worry and 
trouble by discovering that the hole was about six inches 
too short for the box. Four of the attendants with picks 
and shovels soon remedied that, however, and the burial 
proceeded. The Episcopal service was read, and the 
miner reading it had instructed another standing near 
to carry out the usual exercises. As the words " ashes 

to ashes and dust to dust " were slowly read, Bill P 

began to throw in gravel on top of the box, first with 
his hands and then with a shovel. At this " Shorty's " 
consternation and anger knew no bounds. He jumped 
from one person to another, asserting vehemently that 
the d — n fool was crazy and was breaking up the funeral. 
" Shorty " was bound to have it so, too, and could not 
be stopped until Bill Black got him by the arm and 
assured him it was part of the ceremony. 

" Shorty " is one of those big-hearted characters who 
never forgive an insult. The act on the part of Bill 

P he considered a personal insult and as one never 

to be forgiven or forgotten. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SPOKANE. 

And How it Happened That I Became a Member of the Ancient 
and Honorable Order of Happy Grangers. 

Of course, these sales and the rapid growth of Coeur 
d'Alene thrust prosperity on Spokane, and its property- 
boomed. We all bought, and as new railroads came in 
with new people and plenty of money from the East, it 
grew from a sprightly town into a beautiful city. 
Scourged by fire and the terrors of the depreciation of 
real estate, Spokane has come out of the ashes, her 
values are rapidly getting back to the old prices, and the 
wealth of a thousand mines is being poured into her lap 
of luxury. 

Spokane is one of the most wonderful cities in the 
United States to-day ; wonderful in its beauty, wonder- 
ful for the most magnificent water-power, which divides 
the city in two ; wonderful for the stability of its banks, 
on the minds of whose officers recollections of the writer 
must be indelibly impressed; wonderful for the zeal of 
its inhabitants and their loyalty to the welfare of the 
town ; most wonderful that in the short space of ten 
years it has grown from a town of 2,000 people to a city 
of 30,000, and that to-day it is, as it were, the center and 
hub of the wheel of the greatest mining country in the 
United States. 

Tributary to this city we have Rossland, West Koote- 
nay, East Kootenay, Slokan, Coeur d'Alene, the Okonag- 
an mining district and the mines of the Pend d'Oreille. 
Its vast agricultural surroundings have also contributedto 
its success. The wheat that is ground in the city is eaten 
in the Orient, and the early fruits of the Snake River 
will find their way to Cape Nome. The magnificent 
products of Spokane's henneries and her creameries have 



Spokane. 81 

already found a ready market in the Klondike, and her 
hay and feed products are sent to the Philippines. The va- 
rious mining camps spoken of demand good things and 
good prices, and the combination of supply and demand is 
a most fortunate and healthful proposition for Spokane. 

While traveling in the East and in the West I have no- 
ticed the differences in individuals, and have studied 
out the cause that produces the effect. For instance, in 
Connecticut we have one individuality, in New York 
another, and in Virginia and Kentucky still others. 
These individualities are made and formed, first, from 
hereditary causes, and, second, from climatic influences ; 
but there exists in one part of the United States a par- 
ticularly distinctive individuality : I am speaking of the 
citizens of Spokane. The old adage that " Birds of a 
feather flock together " proves true in every way and 
every day, and more than asserts itself in the city of 
Spokane. It would seem that no demand, up to date, 
on the citizens of that city, where money has been 
needed to promote its welfare, has proven too great. 
The outsider who views its commercial prosperity 
and network of railways that make it as good as a ter- 
minal, the never-ending improvements to be seen in its 
suburbs, and the busy stir in its streets, wonders what 
is the cause of it all. The cause is the never-falter- • 
ing, never-failing, unflinching loyalty of the Spokane 
citizen for the best interests of Spokane. 

The Spokesman-Review has wisely said that Spokane 
is the undisputed trade, industrial, railroad, educa- 
tional and social center of a rapidly developing country. 

From a social point of view, I will say that the man 
who has once resided in Spokane will never claim any 
other place as his residence. It is my privilege to insert 
in this little book these few recollections, that lead me 
back to many, many happy days gone by. 

Spokane now has hundreds of mining men who have 
made a legitimate success, and one looks back with 
pleasure to the rustling and struggling and true merit 
and square dealing of such men as Finch, Clark, 
McCauley, Williamson, Sweeney, the boss rustler; 
Crane, Loring, D. C. Corbin, Austin Corbin, George W. 
Dickinson, Barney Barinds, C. G. Griffith, Billy Alper- 
son, C. D. Porter, Peter Porter, George Darby, George 



82 Jim Wardner. 

Hughes, Fred Kelly, Jack Wilmot, Senator Turner, 
Oliver Durant, Alec McCune, Scott McDonald, " Uncle 
John " Davenport, Billy Harris, and a hundred others 
whose success has been rightfully earned and who have 
the congratulations of everybody. 

It was in Spokane, shortly before the time of which 
I am now writing, that I had the pleasure of meet- 
ing W. J. McConnell, afterward Governor McConnell 
of Idaho. The Governor was at that time in Spokane 
on business for his lodge, The Ancient and Honorable 
Order of Happy Grangers, of which he is the grand 
patriarch of the world. McConnell installed me as 
general patriarch of Idaho. While we have much in 
our lodge of a secret nature, yet our main motto is, 
" Never refuse a drink nor kick a dog." I believe I am 
regarded as a good member of the organization, 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



DUTCH JAKE. 



The Most Remarkable Character in the Great Northwest — Philan- 
thropist, Theatrical Manager, and All- Round Sport — He Runs 
a Keno Layout by Electricity. 

Jacob Goetz, of the city of Spokane, Washington, is 
the most noted and unique character in the great North- 
west. He is a man of wealth, influence, and strange 
peculiarities. For more than twenty years he has been 
known throughout Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Wash- 
ington as " Dutch Jake/' He is in the prime of a life 
that may cease suddenly, but he will never grow old in 
appearance. 

More than fifteen years ago he went into the Coeur 
d' Alene country with hundreds of other stampeders and 
hauled all his worldly possessions from Thompson's 
Falls to Murray on a toboggan. Between his broad 
Dutch smile and his fairly good whiskey, he became 
popular with the miners and made money rapidly. 
Being the owner of rich bar-diggings at Potosi, it was 
his habit whenever he saw a man who was " broke " to 
give him an outfit and tell him to go to work at the 
diggings and take out enough gold to give himself a 
start. 

"Dutch Jake" remembered back in the States arosy- 
cheeked girl that he had been fond of, and he wrote for 
her to come out to the mountains and share his increas- 
ing wealth. She came, and in 1887, on the 17th day of 
January, Murray witnessed the greatest and grandest 
wedding of its history. Jake published a notice in the 
local newspaper, inviting all persons within the limits 
of Montana, Idaho and Washington, to come to his wed- 
ding. Then he had posters printed and posted up on 
the mountain walls and the big trees and every sightly 



84 Jim Wardner. 

place, asking all readers to join the feast and festivities 
at Murray, Idaho, the last line of the invitation reading, 
" Nobody barred." 

The day of " Dutch Jake's " wedding opened with the 
firing of dynamite salutes in every camp and cafion 
where miners were at work. The only brass band in 
the district blew its blasts and beat its drums all day 
long, and wines and liquors were in exhaustless quanti- 
ties for every person's indulgence. There were fire- 
works and feasting and dancing. The marriage cere- 
mony was performed in the midst of the biggest crowd 
that ever gathered at one time and place in the Coeur 
d'Alene Mountains. The presents were numerous and 
very expensive. A week before the wedding I went 
to Spokane Falls and carried orders from more than two 
hundred friends and admirers to purchase presents for 
the happy couple. I remember that one package of 
silverware weighed over 700 pounds. The variety of 
wedding presents was not only wonderful but astound- 
ing, covering every necessity of living, including the 
bedroom. 

" Dutch Jake " never failed to grubstake miners who 
appealed to his generosity, and one day he helped to 
outfit Phil O'Rourke, Con Sullivan and L. H. Kellogg. 
A part of the outfit was a thoroughbred jackass, which 
became widely known as " Kellogg's Jack " and as the 
real discoverer of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mine; 
he threatened at one time to outrival even "Dutch 
Jake " himself in importance and notoriety. That was 
a lucky grubstake for Jake. It netted him $100,000 
when the mine was sold. 

After receiving this money, " Dutch Jake " moved to 
Spokane Falls, and then, with Harry F. Baer as a part- 
ner, he built the first brick building in that thriving 
Western city and established the most curious combi- 
nation of theater, saloon, gambling house, dance hall 
and hotel — free to any and all persons who were " broke " 
— that has ever been brought together under one roof. 
The great fire swept away Goetz & Baer's place, and 
upon the site of the old building they erected an estab- 
lishment which by uniqueness, together with the eccen- 
tricities of "Dutch Jake" and the stability of his part- 
ner, Harry F. Baer, created a tremendous patronage, so 




JACOB GOETZ. 

(DUTCH JAKE.) 



"Dutch faker 85 

great that in time they were obliged to increase their 
institution, until to-day, not even in the city of New York, 
and I doubt if in all the world, can a like institution 
be found. Money has been lavishly spent on the fittings, 
carpets and general fixtures of four immense floors. The 
size of the property is 100 by no feet, and the various 
occupations of this weird establishment are owned and 
controlled by the proprietors. The first floor is tiled, 
and in one corner, as you enter the barroom, is a fine 
barber shop with an entrance leading into a Turkish 
bath department. This Turkish bath department has 
also an entrance from the street. A person can get any- 
thing he wants in this place of business — drink, bath, 
meal, bed, shave, go to the theater, dance hall or gam- 
bling room. The house is of pressed brick, has the latest 
modern improvements, is steam-heated, and lighted by 
gas and electricity. The lighting plant is owned by the 
proprietors and is established in the basement, where 
one will also find large liquor and lunch counters. The 
bar on the first floor is an exceedingly beautiful affair. 
The fixtures are of cherry and the mirrors French plate. 
On this floor and to the right of the bar is the only por- 
trait in the building. This portrait is circular, has a 
diameter of three feet, and the frame is six inches in 
width, beautifully variegated, of gold and silver. It is 
a portrait of Jim Wardner, of Wardner, Idaho. 

Take the stairway leading to the theater, club rooms 
and the dance hall. The theater takes in the second 
and third floors, and the fourth floor is the dance hall. 
About one-third of the second floor is occupied by the 
club room. In this room every known game of chance 
is played. First of all, that wonderful and original game 
of " Dutch Jake's," keno, by electricity. The electrical 
work in this game is of such a character that it guaran- 
tees both the player and the proprietor absolute fair- 
ness. 

There is no calling out of numbers, for the balls which 
are drawn are placed in a groove corresponding to the 
number of the ball, and the decline of the little sphere 
operates an electric wire which causes the card bearing 
the number of the ball to appear upon the wall, so that 
the noise of the caller and possible mistakes are avoided. 
Here also we find the games of roulette, stud poker, 



86 Jim Wardner. 

faro, Klondike and craps, played by an immense and 
motley assemblage. 

Under no circumstances does the concern permit minors 
to frequent the gambling hall, and often " Dutch Jake " 
will advise married men who he thinks are spending 
too much money at his establishment to go home and 
keep away from the game. He is a domestic man him- 
self and cannot tolerate anything that infringes upon 
the supreme rights of women and children. " Dutch 
Jake " would never be able to understand why New 
York men sit calmly in street cars and elevated trains 
and permit women to stand. 

Fine lunch counters are all over the house, and 
the goods sold are the very best. "Dutch Jake's" 
goods are like his character. While whiskey will not 
be considered by many people in the world with any 
degree of toleration, yet nobody doubts the purity 
of " Dutch Jake's " whiskey, and it is the same with his 
character. Few men in his line of business have so in- 
delibly stamped upon the minds of any community 
their honesty and integrity as has " Dutch Jake." 

There are 144 men and women working in this estab- 
lishment. Here you find barkeepers, barbers, carpenters, 
gamblers, actors, electricians, waiters, and boot-blacks. 
The house never closes its doors. It is a continuous per- 
formance the year round. " Dutch Jake " is a good pay- 
master, and the average pay of his 144 employees is $4 
per day. A faro dealer in that country earns $10 per 
day. Thus, you see, the salary list is $576 per day. 

I almost forgot to mention one of the principal rooms 
in this house. It is devoted by this humanitarian to the 
poor and needy who stroll into his place asking for a 
meal and a place to lie down. In this apartment any 
poor man is permitted to lie down and also to receive 
one square meal a day free of charge. In this room I 
have seen in the early hours of a bitter cold and stormy 
morning hundreds of these poor fellows huddled to- 
gether, covered only with a blanket which " Dutch 
Jake " would always furnish them. Here the men are 
compelled to be neat, and if a lodger desires a bath he 
is escorted to the bath-room. Cleanliness is one of 
u Dutch Jake's " hobbies. 

"Dutch Jake's" partner, Harry F. Baer, has been 



"Dutch faker 87 

associated with him many years and is the only partner 
Jake ever had. The fact that there has never been any 
disagreement between them proves that both are of the 
right sort — square, reliable, and generous. Their names 
generally head the subscriptions for public charitable 
objects. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

FAIRHAVEN, WASHINGTON. 

But to return to the subject of these memoirs : 
Eighteen eighty -nine was a bad year for me ; I tried 
wheat, oil, stocks, and spent much money prospecting ; 
my expenses were very high. I still had a champagne 
appetite, but only a lager beer income. I decided to go 
to Gov. Hauser and get a job buying ore for the Helena 
smelters. 

I got aboard a Northern Pacific train at Spokane, and 
there met Mr. Nelson Bennett, the great contractor and 
big-hearted millionaire. I was side-tracked to fortune. 
He said : " Jim, I want you. I am building up a great 
city — Fairhaven, Washington, will be the terminal point 
of three great overland railroads. I am building a rail- 
road that will top them all. Fairhaven is the coming 
metropolis of Puget Sound. I am going to New York 
now, and if I wire to you at Helena to come to New 
York, you come." 

At Garrison Junction we parted, he going via Butte 
and I going via Helena. But, after wabbling the mat- 
ter over in my mind for an hour, I concluded to go 
right through to New York, and take Helena in as a 
by-product, as it were, afterward. 

Well, I saw Mr. Bennett when he registered at the 
Fifth Avenue Hotel, but he didn't see me. However, 
in a couple of days I made myself known to him, and 
he said : " It's all right ; go ahead, boom her ! Here's 
a letter to Wilson. When will you start?" 

" To-night — this minute," I said; " quick as you write 
that letter." 

Back I went. I felt that everything was all right. A 
wave of prosperity was rolling westward, and I was on 
the crest. Everything came my way. I stopped on the 
way one day with my family in Spokane, and during 
the time bonded the Boston mine in the Cascades, which 



Fair haven y Washington. 89 

I afterward sold for $25,000. I hurried on to the coast, 
and found Tacoma, Seattle, and Anacortes red-hot — 
investors flocking in from everywhere — but not a word 
about Fairhaven. 

I took the old tub Eliza Anderson and landed at Fair- 
haven, where I met Chas. D. Francis at the wharf. The 
one locomotive that belonged to the railroad, ten miles 
long, was switching a carload of lumber. That same 
carload was switched on the arrival of every boat. 
Francis asked me my business, and I told him I was 
going to look around, and might start a bank. He said 
he already had a permit from the United States Treas- 
urer to start a National Bank, but he could not see any- 
thing but stumps and trees for depositors and customers. 
He was afterward my cashier in the First National Bank 
of Fairhaven. 

I went to the headquarters of the Fairhaven Land 
Company, and there met my old friends, E. M. Wilson, 
Cogill, and Gov. George Black. I exhibited my letter 
and bought 135 lots, 25 per cent, down; balance, three, 
six, nine and twelve months. I had $10,000 in cash, 
and this I at once invested in options on business prop- 
erty right in the heart of Fairhaven, for which I paid 
from $100 to $250 per front foot. In one month I had 
organized the Fairhaven Water Works Company, the 
Fairhaven Electric Light Company, the Samish Lake 
Logging and Milling Company, the Cascade Club, First 
National Bank, and the Fairhaven National Bank, of 
which I was president. I was also president of the first 
three named corporations, and vice-president of the 
Cascade Club and the First National Bank. Modesty, 
you will notice, never kept me in the background. The 
town was incorporated ; E. M. Wilson was elected Mayor 
and I was elected Alderman. Here I made a record. 
During the year, I think I seconded four motions and 
moved to adjourn each time I was present. 

But I am getting ahead of my story. So close did 
I invest my money and so busy was I that I arrived in 
Tacoma "broke/' forgetting thac I had told my wife to 
meet me there, and that we would go to San Francisco 
together. She had been waiting for me two days. She 
is a great waiter. Just keep her anticipating and she 
is perfectly happy. She grows fat on promises and is 



go Jim Wardner. 

happy in financial adversity. I got hold of her acci- 
dentally and I have educated her splendidly. The click 
of the nightlock bothers her no longer. She does not 
implicitly believe what I say ; consequently she has 
few disappointments. I do not confide my business to 
her, and she is not worried and never blamed. I taught 
her early to go out alone ; hence she is courageous. I 
guess we are both of us of the same opinion on every 
subject, for we never gossip or debate. She was bright 
and intelligent when I got hold of her and was easy to 
educate. The time to educate them is in their youth. 
Well, there she was, waiting for me. 

" Got any money ? " says I. 

She says, " Nit." 

Both " broke," and bound for San Francisco. 

" Well, this is a predicament. Let me see what I can 
do," I said. 

This was at the Tacoma Hotel. You remember I 
told you I was side-tracked to success. Well, I was 
down in the office, deliberating whom to draw on, when 
Gen. Curry, who was sitting on the other side of the 
office, called to me and said, " They say you are making 
things howl up in Fairhaven ; a whole boat-load of 
buyers from Spokane went up to-night. Say, can't you 
put me on ? Here;" and handing me a crisp yellow 
bank-bill, value $500, he said, " Put this where it will 
do the best." 

As I owned the best lots in town I soothed my con- 
science by right then and there picking out in my mind 
a couple for him. I returned to the waiting wife, 
showed her that " sweet $500- William," and, in answer 
to her wondering question, said, " A bird flew in at the 
window with it." Most peculiar and best of women : if 
you did not believe it, you certainly showed no evidence 
of doubt. 

Gen. Curry had no cause to regret his investment. 
In San Francisco I learned that realty in Fairhaven 
was jumping to " beat the band," and back I went and 
took a new hold. I made $60,000 clean in cash in sixty 
days, and bought a coal prospect and named it the 
Blue Canon Coal Mine ; then I formed a company, of 
which I was president, and issued 500,000 shares of 
stock, and incorporated the Marble Creek Marble Com- 



Fairliaven, Washington. 91 

pany, capital stock, $100,000, of which company I was 
vice-president. 

In connection with my Fairhaven experience, the fol- 
lowing letter is self-explanatory : 

Fairhaven, Dec. 1, 1891. 

Captain J. R. Matthews and Members of Wardner Hose 
Co. No. 2. 

My Dear Friends : Permit me to thank you for an 
elegantly framed photograph showing all the members 
of your splendid company. I feel that I do not deserve 
the compliment that you bestowed upon me when you 
christened the company, and this further testimonial of 
your regard ; and I more fully appreciate these honors 
when I consult the record of your meritorious conduct 
since your organization. You need no other testimoni- 
als of your gallantry and vigilance than the silent, black 
and charred wrecks that might have been the starters 
of a great conflagration. I trust that you will keep up 
your strength in numbers and continue to protect our 
imperial city. Pay no attention to adverse criticism. A 
volunteer fire company is and always has been the em- 
bodiment of all that is brave and unselfish. 

Hoping in the near future to be able to show my ap- 
preciation in a more substantial manner, I remain, boys, 
your friend, J. F. Wardner. 



CHAPTER XX. 

MY CAT RANCH. 

Then I started my cat ranch. Much has been said 
and much has been written about my celebrated cat 
ranch, located on an island about six miles from Fair- 
haven, Washington. So many bright writers have been 
there, and have seen my novel experiment and specula- 
tion, that I will let them tell the story themselves. I 
must, however, remark that, although the product did 
not equal my anticipation, I cannot blame Mr. Samuel 
Weller, of Cincinnati, who was my sole manager and 
purveyor to the cats. " This gentleman was a cat man, 
and his father was a cat man before him. ,, If he finally 
erred in judgment it was from excessive zeal, and I 
forgive him. Now, as all my visitors, like my cats, had 
tales, let us listen a bit : 

From the New York Tribune : 

" BLACK CATS FOR PROFIT. 

" A new industry is always interesting. And it is es- 
pecially attractive if it shows great possibilities and 
hints of perhaps becoming a source of national wealth. 
There comes at this time from the new State of Wash- 
ington a report of such an industry. We refer to the 
black-cat ranch just established at Fairhaven by the 
Consolidated Black Cat Company, Limited. 

11 We trust that our readers will understand that the 
organization of this company is a fact. Mr. James F. 
Wardner, of Fairhaven, is president. The names of the 
other officers are not given in the San Francisco dis- 
patch which brings the intelligence, but the plan and 
object of the company are quite fully explained. The 
company has bought an island in Puget Sound, and is 



My Cat Ranch. 93 

already taking steps to secure all of the black cats in the 
neighborhood. Several carloads will be shipped from 
San Francisco next week. The cats will all be placed 
on the island and shelter provided for them. An island 
is selected in preference to the mainland, that the cats 
maybe kept separate from others and the pure black 
cat propagated. Men will be employed to take care of 
the cats and to feed them regularly three times a day. 
They will live mostly on fish caught in the surrounding 
waters, so the expense of keeping them will be small. 
We should bear in mind that cats are extremely fond of 
fish and invariably thrive on it. During the day the 
cats will wander about the island, sun themselves on the 
rocks or lie in the shade of the trees, as the condition of 
the weather may dictate. An hour before sundown the 
men will go out and gradually scat them into their 
quarters. The natural tendency of the cat is, of course, 
to roam about at night, and to howl in a heartrending 
key, and fight others of its species with great vigor. 
This undoubtedly improves both the voice and the fight- 
ing qualities of the animal, but as the Consolidated Black 
Cat Company is not raising its cats for either their vocal 
or belligerent qualities, it is thought best to inclose them 
at night if the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals does not interfere. In rounding up the cats at 
night the men will not be allowed to use bootjacks or 
other missiles usually employed in the treatment of 
these animals, and no dog will be allowed on the island. 
" Of course it is entirely too early for any valuable 
speculation as to the probable financial success of the 
company. After it has placed its first shipment of black 
cat-skins on the market, perhaps some definite conclu- 
sion can be arrived at in this regard. It is a new in- 
dustry, but that is no proof that it may not be a brilliant 
success. There is always a considerable demand for 
black cat-skins in certain parts of Missouri and Arkan- 
sas for medical use, a plaster made on the hide side of 
the skin of a black cat killed in the dark of the moon 
being greatly esteemed by many local practitioners, but 
the home supply probably fully meets the demand. A 
general demand must be created. In some respects 
the time seems to be ripe for the Consolidated Black 
Cat Company, Limited." 



94 Jim Wardner. 

From the Sioux City Journal: 

" A company was organized with a capital stock of 
$200,000, and an island of about 1,000 acres in extent, 
located in Bellingham Bay, in the upper part of Puget 
Sound, was obtained to carry on the farming. Then a 
grand skirmish was made to get black cats. The Pacific 
Coast States were ransacked, and nearly every incoming 
train was loaded with black cats, which were immedi- 
ately taken to the island, or ' cat factory/ as we called 
it. They were in charge of a number of men, who 
furnished food by seine-fishing in the bay, and a 
certain number were killed during the year to pay 
current expenses. When I left, a good black cat's pelt 
was worth $2, and the company was making a mint of 
money. 

" Cats' fur makes up elegantly into muffs and capes, 
and I see they are beginning to be quite popular. The 
pelts that are spotted are colored black, and sold as a 
cheap grade. There is going to be plenty of money in 
the industry for Jim Wardner and his company, and I 
think it will only be a matter of a short time until other 
companies are formed and like industries established on 
some of the numerous islands in the Sound. It beats 
skunk and rattlesnake farming ten to one, and is less 
disagreeable and much more profi table/ ' 

From Col. W. J. Parkinson's speech in Rochester 
before the New York Fur Men's Association : 

"Imagine two thousand acres of land devoted en- 
tirely to the cultivation, or rearing, of cats ; black cats, 
gray cats, torn cats, and yellow cats, the ten thousand 
already supposed to be there being daily added to by 
the myriad agents Jim has constantly in the field. 
Imagine these two thousand acres cut up into con- 
venient divisions, with drying sheds and barns, meat 
and slaughter houses, grass and sand lots, for these 
feline pets to whisk about in. Every thirty days, or 
each month in the year, five hundred of these cats are 
presumed to be killed, and their hides hung up to dry, or 
got ready otherwise for the market. In no other place in 
the world is another such industry to be found; and the 



My Cat Ranch. 95 

interesting part of the whole business is, how, when 
your expert fur dealers from the East send their 
agents out through the Northwest for skins of various 
kinds, you pick up bale after bale of Jim Wardner's cat- 
skins at different points along the coast, and when they 
reach you and your customers they become known as 
'hood seals/ (Laughter.) 

" Of course, not being an expert, I know nothing 
about this part of the trade, but I never visit Puget 
Sound without going to Jim Wardner's cat ranch. You 
will find Jim a most genial fellow, the head of a delight- 
ful family, and always enthusiastic over this pet project 
of his life — his cat ranch. You who are in the fur trade 
should write to him, as it may be for your interests to 
do so. His address is ' Jim Wardner, Fairhaven, Wash- 
ington, care Wardner's cat ranch.' " 

From the Glasgow Herald : 

" There is an island in Bellingham Bay where a local 
statute forever enjoins all residents and casual visitors 
from exclaiming 'rats!' — not that any one having the 
least regard for the amenities of good society or the 
refinements of polite conversation would ever be guilty 
of uttering an expression so uncouth, but, perhaps, the 
statute is framed solely as a means of self -protection, 
and as a means of preventing a riotous outbreak among 
the colonists. 

" A thousand black cats, and every one of them as 
black as fabled Erebus ! Enough to supply all the old 
hags and beldames who have bestrode broomsticks and 
whirled dizzily around in the wild dances of ' Walpurgis 
Night ' or at the diabolical orgies of the ' Witches' Sab- 
bath,' with Satanic companions into which to transform 
themselves, upon occasion, from the days of the old 
woman at Endor to those of the prophetess of the 
Seattle fire. 

" Some dozen or more men are said to be now em- 
ployed in caring for these imps of darkness ; and the in- 
closure which confines them — the imps, not the men — 
is of large extent, covering nearly as much ground as a 
Seattle block." 



96 Jim Wardner. 

From the Seattle Times : 

" BLACK CAT COMPANY SELLS ITS RANCH. 

"We are reliably informed by Mr. Samuel Weller, 
late general manager and purveyor to Wardner's black 
cats, that the vicious and cannibalistic experiment of 
putting cat into cat by means of soup resulted dis- 
astrously to the cats. He says that Mr. Wardner's idea 
of an endless chain won't work in this industry. He 
says that any company can make a conservative profit 
raising black cats on fish and selling their hides only, 
but to use these cats as an article of food for one an- 
other is avarice, and promotes cannibalism. 

" Good-bye, Mr. Weller ! Good-bye to you ! Good- 
bye to the cats forever. In good Latin, ' Scat, get out 
in peace ! ' " 

After Mr. Weller had taken up the cat man's burden 
and I had sloughed off the trials and tribulations of a 
constantly increasing cat business, I found time to pros- 
pect a little. It was on one of these tours into the great 
Cascade range of Washington that I, as recounted in the 
following chapter, met one of my most interesting ex- 
periences. 



CHAPTER XXI. 
"hotel be bum." 

It was & dark, cold, dreary day in November when I 
pulled my horse up, tired, muddy and wet, at the foot of 
one of the great glaciers in the Cascade district of 
Washington. I saw to my right a pine-bark shack, 
marked in letters of charcoal, " Hotel de Bum." It was 
composed of a roof and one side, a few pine-boughs in 
the background, and several old blankets. 

Presently, rushing down the mountain, and singing at 
the top of his voice, followed by his partner, came the 
proprietor. No man ever received a heartier welcome 
by a genial landlord than myself. After registering in 
his diary, he discoursed on the hardships of running a 
hotel in that country and the difficulty of getting cooks, 
but, as an offset, he spoke of the cheapness of rent and ice. 

" Supper is now ready in the dining-room," he said ; 
so, after furnishing my horse with a substantial meal of 
oats, which I carried with me, we three, in the cold rain, 
stood around that rock amidst the profuse excuses of the 
proprietor as to the repairs he intended to make in the 
dining-room. With the same politeness he escorted me 
to room one, about three feet of space next to the end 
of the shack. For a pillow I used my saddle,' with the 
remaining oats to soften up things. I had been asleep 
but a short time when I felt the oats slipping out from 
under my head. Quietly lighting my candle, I saw a 
huge wood-rat tugging away on the sack. Hastily 
seizing my boot, I made a crack at him, only to miss him 
and awake the proprietor. 

" What's the matter with No. i ? " he inquired. 

" Rats," I replied. 



98 Jim Wardner. 

" You've got 'em," said he. " Now go to sleep, or I'll 
charge you extra for gas. See ? " 

Then the fun began. I never heard such a rumpus. 
The glaciers above us roared like artillery and cracked 
with mighty noises as fissure after fissure was rent, and 
they scrunched and grated and pushed themselves down 
through deep beds of gravel and slush. The heavens 
were red with electric illuminations going on on high, 
and, finally, the rain came down as never before. Little 
rivulets from the mountain soon filled the trenches 
around our " hotel," and the trickling sensation made 
me aware of the presence of water around me. Light- 
ing the candle, I found that the water was coursing 
right through my bed. Just then I heard from my 
landlord. 

" Well, what the h — 1 is the matter now with No. 1 ?" 

41 Water," said I ; " bed full of it" 

" Well, you told me you wanted an outside room and 
a bath, and you've got it. Now, d — n you, go to 
sleep, and don't wake the cook." 

I soon got the water turned, and slept soundly until 
morning. I left after breakfast, but have never forgot- 
ten the " Hotel de Bum." 

Soon after this incident, I spent an evening in the 
camp of my old friend Jim Sheehan, now the noted 
politician and much-loved citizen of Seattle, and here 
became acquainted for the first time with a gentleman 
in whose company I have shared many happy hours ; 
but notwithstanding our friendship I cannot forbear, for 
the good of the book and its readers, relating what hap- 
pened one Christmas eve. It was like this : 

Gathered around a social table in Jim's frumenti 
sanctum were a few of us that are left. I will say here 
that Jim's generosity was proverbial, and on this Christ- 
mas eve, filled with memories of the blessed occa- 
sion and other good stuff, Jim had been unusually gen- 
erous. One of us, an old hack-driver from Philippi,had 
nothing to give Jim for his Christmas present except a 
ride in his hack. We all accepted the invitation and 

started to high mass at Father J 's church. Into the 

church we stalked all together, and Mr. Jehu, whip in 
hand. The celebration was proceeding with all the 
pomp and glory of the occasion. The worthy bishop, 



"Hotel de Bum." 99 

gorgeously robed priests and numberless acolytes, sweet 
incense, and the tones of the great organ bewildered 
and confused the donor of our ride. We were filled 
with awe and admiration. 

11 Be gad, Jim," said he, " this beats h— 1 ! M 
"That's the intintion," answered Jim with great em- 
phasis, and then — well, none of us waited for the bene- 
diction. 



o 



CHAPTER XXII. 
"going to 'tay all night?" 

From what I have thus far related of my career it 
may be inferred that I have ever been somewhat of a 
wanderer, and a domestic man only spasmodically. This 
was particularly true of me at this time- of my life when 
things were coming my way and I was kept on the jump 
to prevent their going in an opposite direction. 

I must tell you the story of " Little 'Tay All Night." 
It happened in Fairhaven. I had been absent from 
home about two months in the mines of British Colum- 
bia. My little three-year-old girl, who was always first 
to meet and greet me, and who had pressed her nose 
on the window pane for weeks, rushed to me with 
outspread arms and laughing big blue eyes. " Hello, 
Muggins," said I. " Hello, Dim," said she ; " going to 
'tay all night ? " 

She is older now, and a romancer from 'way back. She 
seems to be sailing around in an ethereal sea of happi- 
ness. She is the choicest diamond in the cluster, but 
she will romance. The other day I said, " Come here, 
Old Smoothy. They tell me you fib a little." She 
answered, " It ain't right to fib, is it ? People won't go 
to Heaven that fib, will they ? " I said, " No, they 
won't." 

After hesitating a full minute, she said, with a toss of 
her head, " I don't care, anyway ; I'll go where you do," 
and away she scampered, leaving me in a dead reverie. 

But the kids got it on me one day. I was about to 
take the eight o'clock train for Chicago. They repeat- 
edly warned me that I would get left, and I had replied, 
" It's a cold day, kids, when the old man gets left." I 
reached the station in time to see only the stern of that 
train, and wended my way homeward. 



" Going to ' Tay All Night ? " 101 

It was a beautiful warm day in August, but those ev- 
erlasting kids had hastily built a fire in the fireplace, 
and all stood with shawls and cloaks and hoods on, 
shivering around that fire. I said, " What in the world 
is the matter with you, kids ? " That's all they wanted. 
Back came the chorus, " You said it's a cold day when 
the old man gets left. It must be awful cold. Oh ! 
we're freezing, we're freezing ! " 

The adage is not a good one, as I have been left other 
ways in all kinds of weather. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE BLUE CANON COAL MINE. 

As an example of the fact that I was fairly in the 
swim and could not avoid the prosperity that was forced 
upon me, I will relate a little item of the Blue Canon 
coal mine. 

This coal mine is located about eight miles from Fair- 
haven. One day in the fall of 1890 my attention was 
called to a coal prospect that had long lain idle in the 
vicinity mentioned. I had repeatedly told Mr. Gove 
that I did not want anything to do with the coal mine. 
It was too much like legitimate business ; yet owing to 
his persistent endeavors I visited the prospect. No 
name had been given it ; in fact, a hole in the side of 
the mountain with some coal in the opening of the tun- 
nel and none on the face of it was all there was to show. 
In a moment I saw the fatal error of the prospectors 
who had done this preliminary work. In all certainty 
the fact demonstrated itself . that the first vein of coal 
was a large one, and, while they thought it was hori- 
zontal or flat, everything demonstrated that it was pitch- 
ing at an angle of forty-five degrees, and that they had 
passed over the coal-bed and were breaking into the 
hanging wall. I asked how much this property could 
be bought for, and Mr. Gove said $20,000 ; "and," said 
he, "this will include my small commissions. ,, 

I examined the records, and after the title was per- 
fected purchased the property. I developed the mine 
and found a tremendous bed of coal, which grew better 
as it went down. In fact, to-day I think it is the best 
quality of coal in the State of Washington. I put steam- 
boats on the lake to connect with my bull teams on the 
land, and had much local demand for the coal. At the 
time of the crash, when the banks were trembling and 
the stocks of all my enterprises had absolutely ceased to 
be of any collateral value, I sold my coal mine in this 



The Blue Canon Coal Mine. 103 

way : I went to Helena and arranged a meeting with 
the following gentlemen : Mr. A. J. Seligman, president 
of the American National Bank ; S. T. Hauser, president 
of the First National Bank of Helena ; John T. Murphy, 
millionaire merchant ; E. M. Holter, and Martin Holter, 
millionaire hardware men, and Peter Larsen, millionaire 
contractor. I told them of the value of the coal mine 
and explained to them how, by the expenditure of more 
money, vast shipments could be made to San Francisco. 
I told them I would sell them this mine without one 
dollar in cash, in this way : They were to give me ten 
notes of $10,000 each, with interest at 9 per cent., 
payable in Portland, Oregon, and each note was to 
have the signatures of all the individuals mentioned. 
I extended to them an invitation to visit the property, 
which they did, and they were greatly surprised at 
its extent and character. Here was a bonanza of its 
kind that had lain still for ages. 

Well, they took the mine on my terms, and in the 
evening I called on Mr. Bernard Goldsmith, an old and 
estimable friend of mine, who had many times helped 
me in my undertakings. I then went over to the Na- 
tional Savings Bank. Mr. Dekum, the president, was 
present, and I asked him if he wished to purchase ten 
notes, each one having five names on it, and every name 
the imprint of a millionaire, reported as such in Brad- 
street's and Dun's Agencies. He answered : " Such 
paper is unusual ; I will hold a meeting of the directors 
and give you an answer this evening/' 

In the morning I got my cash and wiped out many ob- 
ligations and really saved the credit of two banks which 
were tottering. This sale was made in '91. The mine 
has never ceased to be a good producer, and to-day the 
superior quality of Blue Canon coal is known all over 
the world. Captain Healey, of the United States cutter 
Bear, corroborates the testimony of my old friend, Cap- 
tain Johnny O'Brien, who is now on the steamer Rosalie, 
as to the extraordinary qualities of Blue Canon coal. 
I was as well aware as any one that when I parted with 
that treasury of black diamonds I parted with a fortune, 
but necessity is an overbearing master ; compulsion is 
its weapon, and I was its victim, 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

HE WAS FROM EAGLE CITY, IDAHO. 

Speaking of being a victim and of parting with for- 
tunes reminds me of a man from Eagle City, Idaho, 

(we will call him H ), who tried to separate me from 

some of my hard-earned dollars by working the follow- 
ing little game : 

It was in New York, in the spring of 1891, I think, 
that I was accosted on the corner of Twenty-eighth 
street and Broadway by a handsomely, richly and fash- 
ionably dressed man. His tile was the latest, his collar 
was the highest and whitest, and his gloves too smooth 
for anything. 

He said, " Good morning, Wardner." 

I said, " Good morning." 

" Guess you don't remember me, Jim — come over to 
Kirk's, and have a small cold bottle of fizz." 

Now, there's no danger that I won't encounter for 
my share of a "small cold bottle." Over we went, I 
trying to remember that face and those " ratty " eyes. 
He looked back as we crossed the crowded thorough- 
fare. I had him ; I knew him. No one but he had I 
ever seen who carried the keen, popping, black, lustrous 
eye of the wood-rat. 

Once in Kirk's and seated, he said : " Jim, you don't 
remember me ?" 

" I don't think I do," I said. " You are not the man 
who had that savage gun fight with brave old Bill Buz- 
zard ? You didn't work for Childs, with a low-cut blue 
flannel shirt, in '8$, selling whiskey at two bits a throw, 
in Eagle, Idaho ? You were not one of the party that 
took over the ponies in the gulch, the ones belonging 
to Sweeney, Eckert, Hawkins and myself, leaving us 
with nothing to pursue on ? " 

"Yes, I am the man," he said. 

"For Heaven's sake," I said, "how this wonderful 
change ?" 



He Was from Eagle City y Idaho. 105 

" Well," he said, " I struck a little luck after leaving 
Eagle- — drifted down to the Isthmus of Panama. Money 
was wonderfully plenty and easy to get. Finally 1 and 
my partner, Pratt, got a concession and rented an old 
church. Pratt went to South America, got Sarah Bern- 
hardt, played her for fourteen days, and cleared up 
$14,000 for our share." (I have since heard that my 
friend was the treasurer, and Pratt got nothing.) 

At this juncture, and while a second bottle was being 
discussed, another " beauty " entered the side door on 
Twenty- eighth street. At once he was introduced to 
me as a partner from Texas. He was even more fas- 
tidiously gowned — in fact, these two " lilies of the val- 
ley " reminded me of the psalm : " They toil not, neither 
do they spin ; but even Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed like one of these. ,, 

11 Well," I said, finally, " gentlemen, what's your little 
game now ?" 

They invited me to meet them at the Albemarle the 
next day. I agreed to do so. I told Gov. S. T. Hauser, 
and he in turn told Phil Thompson and Murat Hal- 
stead, and all were interested. We all took lunch to- 
gether at Delmonico's, and a royal good one it was. We 
discussed mines, etc., and I related with vigor the value 
of the Freddie Lee, in which I was interested. In the 

course of the day I gave H my card, a gaudy, 

gilded affair of the Fairhaven National Bank, " J. F. 
Wardner, President." This was all they asked. I was 
puzzled, although well treated. They sailed next day 
on the Teutonic. 

In due time there came a letter from H to me 

at Fairhaven, care of the bank, saying that he had sold 
the Freddie Lee conditionally to Count Pominsky for 
$200,000, which was more than I asked for it ; also that 
he had drawn on me for $1,000, pending examination of 
the mine, and expenses of return trip to America, and 
that the Count had indorsed the draft and he had 
cashed it. He urged me to be ready to pay the draft, as 
the sale was certain. 

Sure enough, the draft came along for collection and 
was returned, and I have never heard from him since. 
The fellow truly worked in a mysterious way his won- 
ders to perform. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

KASLO. 

My next venture shows how I like to do business, 
Caution and conservatism are cards I never played. 

"JAMES F. WARDNER HAD THE NERVE. 



"HIS PURCHASE OF $l7,SOO CREATED A BIG FLUTTER. 



" Property Has Steadily Advanced Since This Sale Was Made, 
and Now Is Worth Three Times as Much as on That Day, 
and This Without Doubt Will Have a Wonderful Effect 
in the Spring. 

" We have long since become convinced that there is 
only one Jim Wardner. Not only is he a man of ex- 
cellent judgment, but he is a world-beater for nerve in 
all his undertakings. While other men hesitate and 
wonder, he advances with a smile of perfect confidence, 
and is indeed a master spirit of energy and enterprise. 
Some months since, when real estate was very quiet, 
in fact, hardly a sale in a week, Wardner coolly pur- 
chased $17,500 worth of inside property from the Kaslo- 
Kootenay Land Company." 

So said the Kaslo Herald in January, 1892. Kaslo 
was then as brisk and sparkling a little mining town as 
one could wish. I was soon interested in mines and real 
estate, and had the general welfare of the town at 
heart. I also owned one-half of a hotel. How I got 
into this business is best told by R. H. Kemp in his 
Kaslo paper. Here it is : 

-FOUND A LOAFING PLACE. 

" To show the prodigality of the mining fraternity, the 
following incident is given, which recently happened in 
Kalso : 



Kaslo. 107 

" John King and Jim Wardner, two well-known min- 
ing- princes, met on Front street. One asked the other, 
* Where is there a good loafing place in the town ? ' 

11 * There is none,' said the other. 

"'Well,' said Mr. King, 'there is a hotel over there 
that has no liquor license ; let's go and buy it.' 

" ' Done,' said Wardner ; and they at once proceeded 
to the house in question. 

"Finding the proprietor, the question was asked, 
1 How much do you want for this ranch ? ' 

" ' Five thousand dollars/ was the laconic reply. 

" ' We'll take it/ chorused both gentlemen. 

" John F. Ward, of Nelson, happening to be in town, 
and being an old friend of the parties, purchased an 
interest and proceeded to Nelson, where a license was 
obtained instanter. On his return, the hotel was opened 
and christened the Coeur d'Alene. Wine flowed like 
water the first evening, and, the writer believes, is still 
pouring in quite a healthy stream. Jim and John se- 
cured their loafing place, but they have plenty of com- 
pany." 

My partner, John King, is one of Nature's best. He 
is also a great business man. He is the author of that 
celebrated axiom : " Jim, it beats all how business keeps 
up." It happened in our own house. The receipts at 
the bar had reached $46. King had spent $40 himself. 
He and I always paid cash at the bar ; first, because I 
did not want King to sluice in the whole business, and 
second, to set a moral and financial example to our mot- 
ley trade. 

One night along came E.G. McMickin,formerly general 
passenger agent of the N. A. T. & T. Co., and the smoothest 
railroad man in the country. With him were other " just- 
came-to-look-the-country-over " people. Some of Cor- 
bin's railroad gang had been paid off, and came at once 
to my place. Now, it happens that I have known these 
a terriers " all over. Where a new railroad is, there they 
are, and I, too. Here is what happened : 

After showing McMickin the sights I dropped into 
my place. It was full of " terriers," and they were full 
of our "good stuff." The smoke was thick. Old 
clothes, old gum boots, and old men did not give the 
place a very lilacky perfume. They all knew me, and 



108 Jim Wardner, 

disputed in slang and profanity as to where they first 
met me, and who had known me the longest. I was 
liberal with them, and enjoyed McMickin's discomfiture. 
He did not understand at once their endearing epithets. 
Finally, one big " Mick," who had been drinking until 
he had reached the crying mood, put his arms around 
my neck, and, with broken voice and tearful, streaming 
eyes, said, "Good-bye, Jim ; we'll plant flowers on your 
grave. Won't we, Dennis?" Dennis slobbered out, 
"We will that." I said, "Where are you going to get 
the flowers, Micky, in this snowy country?" He said, 
"Jim, ye know well, ye do, thim beautiful flowers of 
the mountains ; thim tender crocuses that do be follow- 
ing the melting snow, blooming all the time from lower 
to higher ; 'tis thim tender flowers we'll bring, won't we, 
Dennis?" 

McMickin and I went out into the clear, cold, healthy, 
ozoned atmosphere. He said nothing. I only thought, 
and thought this : Is this sincerity, is this truth, is this 
eloquence ? Yes ; for I bethought me of the noble 
tribute of R. H. Kemp in a Spokane paper, in 1888. It 
was at Nelson, B. C: 

" After nightfall, when the pale moon had risen and 
the camp-fires were brilliantly burning, there was much 
speculation among the groups around the fires as to 
what the visit of Jim Wardner portended. One party 
said, ' I am not rich, but I can rustle, and I would will- 
ingly give $1,000 if Jim Wardner would take hold in 
this camp.' Another spoke up and said, ' I am only a 
laboring man. I have no means; but I would willingly 
work thirty days, ten hours each day, if Jim Wardner 
would decide to stay here.' Such were the expressed 
opinions of a number. They appeared to look upon Mr. 
Wardner as a leader where life and energy were re- 
quired, and the writer thought, as he wended his way 
to the cabin on the river bank, where he slept : ' Jim 
Wardner may be a prince among his fellow men, but he 
is a king among the miners.' " 

This is beautiful and from a talented pen, but not so 
poetic, I think, as the pathos of " Micky Free." 

Speaking of R. H. Kemp, he is a glorious fellow, 
medium stature, built like an athlete, and complete in 
every particular regarding his anatomy except that he 



Kaslo. 109 

is minus one eye. For this, Kemp has substituted one 
of glass; not exactly the same size and color as its pred- 
ecessor, but still one that serves its purpose, which 
is mainly to keep out the cold and prevent ear-ache. 

It happened that during our wanderings in the wild 
west Kootenays, we ran into an Indian village, and as it 
became very cold we ducked into the first big tepee we 
came to. There we found, sitting around the fire, what 
seemed to be all the belles of the village. His Royal 
Highness Kemp at once made himself as pleasant and 
popular as possible, and as he could talk Siwash like a 
native, the surroundings soon became very much like 
a Wednesday afternoon hen-party. Everything went 
well for some time, when a certain uneasiness began to 
be manifest among the belles. All of a sudden, from 
low mutterings of surprise, there arose the frightened 
scream of the Siwash maidens, and had a mouse run up 
their trousers, they could not have jumped higher or 
screamed louder, and out they all went, through and 
under the tepee. 

The cause of the trouble was this : There sat Kemp 
with his second-hand glass eye in his hand and the most 
curious expression gleaming from the live eye that I 
ever saw before or since. The fact was that, at inter- 
vals, he had scooped that glass eye out of its socket, to 
the wonder and astonishment of those guileless girls of 
the Kootenays, until they fled from what they supposed 
was a supernatural being. 

One of the celebrities in Kaslo was " Tough Nut 
Jack." He was once in a poker game in that town. 
There were four in the game, and one of the men had 
lost one eye. Jack became suspicious, and finally be- 
came sure that something wrong was going on, and soon 
located the sinner. Jack stopped the game, laid his gun 
deliberately on the table, and said : 

" I don't want to tro out any insinuations or hurt any- 
body's feelin's, but by if this monkey business don't 

stop I'll shoot that feller's other eye out." 

Here is what the Montreal Star writes about " Tough 
Nut Jack " : 

u It was in 1876 that Mr. Wardner first met ' Tough 
Nut Jack/ This was in the Black Hills. There were 
in the Hills many original characters, about each of 



no Jim Wardner. 

whom he can tell entrancing stories — ' Calamity Jane/ 
' Bronco Nell ' (two female prospectors), ' Pancake Joe,' 
' Billy Goose-Eye/ ' Eat 'Em Uptake/ ' Big-Nose Char- 
ley/ ' Kettle-Belly Brown/ ' Shorty Clemens/ ' Scar- 
Faced Charlie • and about a dozen of ' Wild Bills.' 

" All these played their parts. Many of them are 
gone to their last account. ' Tough Nut Jack ' survives. 
He is a unique character, an Irishman, of a roving dis- 
position, who had extraordinary luck in prospecting, who 
made money as easy as winking, but who spent it as it 
came to him. He had been in Utah, and it was there 
Mr. Wardner met him. He drifted to Colorado, and it 
was there he struck it rich. He struck a mine there 
which realized, for his share of it, over $100,000. 

" And it did him no good at all ; only harm. He 
drank it ; he gambled it ; it went like the wind. But 
' Tough Nut Jack ' was a warm-hearted fellow. ' He 
and I were great chums/ said Mr. Wardner. 'The mine, 
you know, was called " Tough-Nut." That is how they 
called him "Tough Nut Jack." 

"•'We parted, and I never expected to see him again. 
In 1892 I was away back of the McLaren mine, about 
fifty miles from Rossland. Night came on. There was 
snow on the ground. I was cold and hungry. I thought 
to myself that I was in rather a bad pickle, when I dis- 
cerned a light in the distance, along a hillside. I went 
forward ; saw a little tent ; noticed a glimmering light. 

" ' Is there anybody within ? 9 I hollered. 

" 'You bet your life there is/ came back the hearty 
cry. 

" ' Who's there ? ' 

" ' Tough Nut Jack/ 

«<Why ' 

" ' Tough Nut Jack ' came out, holding his bit of a 
candle in his hand, and there was such a meeting as you 
could not imagine. He set up the Irish howl or cry of 
welcome. 

" ' Are you hungry or thirsty ? Come right in and I'll 
make ye a bit of supper, and give ye a bed o' British 
Columbia feathers/ 

" ' This is a euphemism for pine boughs/ continued 
Mr. Wardner. 

" ' Well, I slept there with him on the boughs, and in 



Kaslo. in 

the morning we parted. Not, however, before he prom- 
ised me that if he struck it rich he would let me in for 
a good thing, for the sake of old times/ " 

Jack kept his word. I left him in Cape Nome, where 
he has amassed immense wealth and remembered his 
old partner. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

" SCOTTY." 

" Scotty " ran the ranch ; that is, " Scotty's M word was 
law at the little log cabin on the summit, and twenty 
miles from Kaslo, where Walker's old Canadian and 
Seagram's "old stuff " were dispensed at twenty-five 
cents a crack. 

It happened that " the Little Minister " from Nelson 
sent word that he would preach at the cabin on Sun- 
day. To this " Scotty " objected, and objected hard. He 
talked of clergymen and Gospel sharps and sky pilots 
who were a hoodoo to any mining camp or steamboat, 
but, anyway, "the Little Minister" of the Church of 
England arrived. The first thing he did on that cold 
and stormy night was to remove his outer clothing and 
ask all hands to have a drink. This suited "Scotty." 
In the morning he distributed books of the Episcopal 
service and song. " The Little Minister " preached a 
really good sermon. His text was the Prodigal Son, 
most apt and ably handled. But " Scotty " was not im- 
pressed. He doubted his reception should he return 
home, and told me confidentially that his father had no 
fatted calf. 

"The Little Minister" returned to Nelson, and we 
often talked of his experiences — and " Scotty," poor 
" Scotty ! " soon afterward, confused and full of Cana- 
dian rye, lay down to sleep one night on the snowy 
trail, and awoke, I hope, to meet a merciful judgment 
from Him who " tempereth the wind to the shorn lamb." 
He certainly won't be hard on " Scotty." 

Speaking of "Scotty" McDougal, it happened once 
in the spring of 1888 I was riding along on my cayuse, 
well packed with camp kit and grub, when suddenly 
the animal showed unmistakable signs of colic, and was 
soon down in the muddy trail, groaning and grunting 
and useless. 



"Scotty." 113 

Along came Mr. " Scotty " McDougal. 

"What can I do for this horse, * Scotty* ?" I asked. 

" Run quick for whiskey/' said he ; " and spare no 
time, mon." 

With all speed I ran to a neighboring road-house and 
soon returned, breathless, with a flask of Canadian rye. 
I handed it quickly to " Scotty," who, placing the flask 
to his lips and draining every drop therefrom, turned to 
me and said, slowly slapping himself upon the breast, with 
great emphasis : " There will be cayuses, broncos and 
horses until the end of the world, but never another 
' Scotty ' McDougal. I am feeling much better." 

And what of " the Little Minister " who so nobly per- 
formed in snow and rain, sunshine and shadow, the 
duties of his profession ? Oh, he naturally tired out. A 
little church was built, but after a hard struggle he was 
compelled to close it and leave. Pathetically taking 
leave of his flpck, he said : 

" Brothers and sisters, I come to say good-bye. I 
don't believe God loves this church, because none of you 
ever die. I don't think you love each other, because I 
never marry any of you. I don't think you love me, 
because you have not paid me my salary. Your dona- 
tions are mouldy fruit and wormy apples, and ' by their 
fruits ye shall know them.' Brothers, I am going to a 
better place. I have been called to be chaplain of a 
penitentiary, * Where I go, ye cannot now come. I go 
to prepare a place for you,' and 'may the Lord have 
mercy on your souls ! ' " 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

JOHN TODD. 

Speaking of ministers, there was John Todd, whom 
everybody in the State of Washington has heard of 
or known. Educated for the ministry, he turned out a 
splendid horseman. He knows the pedigree of every 
standard and thoroughbred horse on both sides of the 
ocean. His memory passes all understanding. He has 
generally succeeded, but when he tackled the " Two 
Funny Men of Washington " on the road, as eccentric- 
ities, or laugh-promoters, he fell down flat. 

The show was wretched, and the wonder to me always 
was how John held on as long as he did. It was at the 
town of Spangle, Washington. Todd had advertised 
largely, with poor results at the box-office. Some few, 
however, were inside, and the performance had com- 
menced, when along came a poor little girl leading a 
yellow dog — never did a prettier little girl lead a 
meaner-looking dog. She said to Todd : 

" Mister, how much is it ? " 

He said, " Twenty-five cents, dearie." 

" Haven't got it," she lisped. 

Jokingly he said, " Til take your dog, little girl ; 
don't miss the show." 

He took the dog, and tied it up in the office. It 
wasn't long, however, before the little girl looked into 
the bOx-office and up into Todd's eyes, saying : " Mis- 
ter, please give me back my dog." This was the last 
night of Todd's enterprise. 

But enough of other people, and back to Jim Ward- 
ner. I have been writing about some of my friends, 
and now I shall let one of my friends write about me. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

a tribute from fred. w. dunn. 

" Searchlight, Nev., Nov. 27, 1899. 
"My Dear Mrs. Wardner : 

" I own to being tardy in writing you of some remi- 
niscences of Jim's life, as I promised him I would do when 
I met him in Los Angeles, California, several months 
ago. However, in hopes they are not too late, here they 
are, and are absolute facts : 

" My first acquaintance with Jim was at Spokane 
Falls, Washington, in a pool-room. I was well ac- 
quainted with the proprietor, and Jim asked me to in- 
troduce him, which I did. Jim was of an inquisitive 
turn of mind, and when he saw forty to one chalked upon 
the board, he said, ' No use talking, Dunn, that man 
will bust.' Well, Jim started in and tried forty to one, 
then eight to one, then three to one, and on the last 
race he tried one to five. He lost about $300 on the 
first four races and won ten dollars on the last one, 
where he bet fifty dollars to win ten dollars. After he 
cashed his check and the races were over, he came to me 
and told me of his experience, saying, * Well, Dunn, I 
thought I was pretty fly in. figures, but that bookmaker 
straightens out my curves and I am all right now.' 

" Some months later I met Jim at Fairhaven, Wash- 
ington. He had run up against one of his streaks of 
luck and was president of a bank, president of the club, 
and president of a number of things. He was also in- 
terested in the lumber and logging business on Lake 
Whatcom. He invited me up to the club, where we 
had about forty drinks of the club's best, and viewed 
the furniture, etc., of the new club-house, which would 
really have done credit to any club in America. Of course 
I praised everything. Later in the day we arrived at 
Jim's office, where he had a number of specimens of 



n6 Jim Wardner. 

galena ore, timber, etc. ; and, as I presumed, he took me 
for a capitalist. He began to advise about investments. 
I was only a railroad superintendent, of course, and had 
no money, but the position is always magnified before 
the public. Poor Jim did not know he was wasting a 
whole day, and club whiskey at twenty-five cents per 
drink, on a railway superintendent who didn't have 
four dollars in the bank ; but I saw a chance for a joke 
and played it out. I have since been told I am the 
only man who ever fooled Jim Wardner. 

" Well, he began to tell about the Boston mine in 
the Cascade Pass, also about the millions to be made 
in timber floated down Lake Whatcom, and lastly about 
the enormous coal deposits in the country, all of which 
I was much interested in clear up to the close of the 
day. Then he took me to his house, gave me a fine 
dinner, showed me the Shetland ponies, introduced me 
to the principal business men of the place, and finally 
drove me to the wharf, where 1 took the Eastern Ore- 
gon, a boat then running on the Sound, for Seattle. 
Just as I was going up the gangplank, Jim dropped on 
me and said, i Dunn, I believe you have worked me for 
a day's good time.' ' Yes,' said I, 'that's what I came 
for/ and we parted. 

" I little knew how easily Jim would get even. In 
a week he came to my office in Seattle, and began to 
talk about the millions of feet of lumber and logs he 
had in Lake Whatcom ; that the boats were trying to 
cinch him, and the Fairhaven road could not get 
through rates. So he would give me all his business 
if I could arrange to handle it. Of course, I was all 
smiles, and showed Wardner the town of Seattle. Fi- 
nally, in the evening, he said he must take the train 
home, as he had missed the boat, but he disliked to incur 
the expense, because he had passes on the boat, also on 
the Fairhaven road ; but as his wife and four children 
were with him it would be cheaper to take the boat. I 
thought here was my chance to cinch the lumber 
shipments, and told my clerk to make out a pass for 
Mr. Wardner and family for the balance of the year. 
Jim thanked me for it, but on December 31st he came 
again in the office. He said : 

" ' Dunn, do you remember how you worked me for a 



A Tribute from Fred. W. Dunn. 117 

day's entertainment.' I laughed and really felt tickled,, 
until he said, * Well, the work was like that 40 to 1 shot 
in Spokane. I haven't shipped a pound of lumber over 
your road, and my family think it the best road in the 
world, as they have ridden for six months for nothing. 
Now I want to make a trade. I'll call it square if you 
give me a family pass for next year.' 

" I saw the situation, and I don't think Jim paid any 
fares the next year. 

" Some months later, when the Northern Pacific officials 
came out to inspect the Seattle, Lake Shore and East- 
ern road before its final purchase, I met Jim at Sedro y 
Washington. He was with Joe McNaught, a brother of 
Jim McNaught, then the general solicitor for the 
Northern Pacific Railway. Those were mushroom boom 
times, and a mushroom boom was on. Well, Wardner 
was a great man in those days, and so was Joe 
McNaught. We on the special train had our business to 
do. Jim Wardner, always on hand at such times, was also 
present at Sedro. Joe McNaught and Wardner both 
got anxious to get back to Anacortes to catch the boat; 
but it was twenty-three miles, and there was no engine. 
By persuasion of Jim McNaught and General Man- 
ager Mellen, I agreed to let our engine haul them to 
Anacortes. The track on the * Seattle and Northern 
from Sedro to Anacortes at that time was the poorest 
track in the world. It was raining, as it nearly always; 
does up there; and besides, there was only forty-six 
minutes left to catch the boat, and our engineer had 
never been over the road, and so knew nothing of it. I 
told him that I wanted to accommodate the gentlemen,, 
but it would be folly to run it in forty-six minutes, sa 
to go ahead and run it in about one hour and thirty 
minutes, and make some excuse for their missing the 
boat. I little knew Jim Wardner. Instead of getting 
into my private car, which I had loaned them, he got on 
the engine with a box of cigars and a bottle of whiskey. 
Little knowing his own danger, he told the engineer I 
was altogether too timid, that the track was rough, but 
it was caused by the big ties laid, which made it toa 
rigid; that he knew, because his Lake Whatcom timber 
made the ties, and that they were all 12x14 and ten 
feet long. At any rate, the engineer turned loose and 



1 1 8 Jim Wardner. 

ran that twenty-three miles in twenty-six minutes. How 
the engine and car stayed on the track that dark night 
I don't know. Neither does any other railroad man; 
but they did, and we all decided it was Wardner's luck. 
" Some months later I had quit railroading and gone 
into mining, and have kept at it since. Wardner and 
Mr. H. D. Andrews had some claims up in British Co- 
lumbia some miles north of Osooyoos Lake, in Washing- 
ton. I was operating at Loomiston, Okanogan county, 
Washington. The route for all of us was by stage from 
Coolie City, a distance of 120 miles. On one occasion, 
in the winter, when the stages ran on runners and the 
mercury was about 25 ° below zero, we got to Columbia 
City, on the Columbia River. Here it was we had to 
ferry over and then follow up the Okanogan River Val- 
ley. Our whiskey had given out some miles back, 
and there was no saloon in Columbia City. A merchant, 
however, had some rock and rye. We bought six 
bottles at $2 each, and started in the night for 
Conconella. Wardner began to kick about the quality 
of the whiskey. He did not object to the rock 
candy, but did object to the liquor, and very soon 
named it ' Antediluvinarian.' Well, we started in on 
1 Antediluvinarian/ feeling it would be as well to be 
killed by it as to freeze, and we drank all of it before 
we arrived at Loomiston. The next morning Wardner 
insisted on saving the bottles, and when we arrived at 
Loomiston stored them away in my office at the Black 
Bear mill. In about ten days he came back from his 
mines in British Columbia and called for the bottles. 
He had secured some sort of a Canadian stamp on his 
journey, and, together with some tin- foil taken from plug- 
cut tobacco, he was able to reseal the bottles, after filling 
them with an assortment of vinegar, sugar, stale beer, 
absinthe, Jamaica ginger, peppermint and Tabasco sauce 
— all mixed together. He took the bottles back all 
filled and resold them to the merchant for fifty 
cents above their original cost, assuring him it was 
guaranteed ' Antediluvinarian' that he had smuggled 
across the line, and that he was doing the man a 
favor by letting him have it. I heard of the splendid 
drink for several weeks being dished up at Columbia 
City for two bits (25 cents) per drink ; but after the 



A Tribute from Fred. W. Dunn, 119 

stock was exhausted no one was ever able to get any 
more like it, and I believe this celebrated liquor is being 
talked of to-day by old-timers. 

" On one occasion I was going from Spokane Falls to 
Tacoma, Washington. On the sleeper were Lieutenant- 
Governor Laughton, Jim Wardner, and myself, occupy- 
ing a state room. To pass the time away we got to 
playing a game of hearts. As I never could play any 
game of cards worth a cent, I was the victim every 
game. A fine-looking gentleman came into the room 
and sat down on the sofa to watch the game. Wardner 
and Laughton kept joking me, saying they never did 
see a Hoosier who could play anything, anyway. The 
stranger evidently took pity on me, and said he was a 
Hoosier and would take my place. As we were only 
playing for the cigars, Wardner and Laughton acquiesced. 

" They went at it. Well, my Hoosier rescuer fared as 
badly as I did. He lost six games straight and quit, at 
the same time laughing his ill-luck off in magnificent 
style, so that he was pronounced by all of us to be a 
jolly good fellow. However, he and I were both igno- 
rant of the decks of cards. It seems Wardner and 
Laughton had put up a job on me. They had got sev- 
eral decks of cards and taken the hearts out of them 
and fixed up a game for me. When the stranger came 
into the game they could not explain, and had to go on 
with the joke, and on one occasion the stranger got fif- 
teen hearts — two more than there are in a deck. He 
seemed not to notice it, and quit the game chuckful of 
fun. He proved to be Clem Studebaker, of the cele- 
brated wagon firm of Studebaker Brothers, of South 
Bend, Indiana. I never knew the facts until some 
months later, when Gov. Laughton told me of the joke. 

" I shall have to stop writing at this time for the reason 
I fear I shall fill the entire book. Should there be a sec- 
ond edition, however, I shall be glad to add more anec- 
dotes to the history of the life of this really unique man. 
One side of his nature I will, however, show by repeat- 
ing a circumstance which occurred in San Francisco. 

u I had noticed Wardner's arrival at the Lick House. 
I went down to call on him, and he seemed to be the 
same old Jim. In fact, no one can tell by his actions 
whether he is worth a million or is ' broke.' On this 



120 Jim Wardner. 

occasion I asked him to walk out with me. It was rain- 
ing, and I wanted to go tip to Kearney street. On the 
corner of Kearney and Post was an old blind man grind- 
ing an organ. Jim said, ' Dunn, that's awful tough ! ' 
and taking from his pocket a dollar he threw it in the 
tin cup. We walked around on Kearney to Market and 
back to Montgomery street and the Lick House, when 
Jim said : ' Dunn, loan me a dollar. I expect a remit- 
tance to-morrow from a friend. I am plumb broke, 
having given my last dollar to the blind man.' Of 
course, Jim got the dollar. 

" In him — notwithstanding many enemies, which every 
man has who leads an active life — I can see the loving 
father, the hospitable gentleman, the true friend, and 
one of nature's noblemen. Notwithstanding his eccen- 
tricities, Jim Wardner is a person no one who knows 
him well can fail to love. 

" Yours respectfully, 

" F. W. Dunn." 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

MR. NAPIER. 

Well, we had all been having a joyous time, all mak- 
ing money and spending it — then came '93. This book 
shall not be a hard-luck story in any particular, so, after 
selling all my stock, coal mine, carriages and horses, 
and putting all this money into the banks that I created, 
to save them, I sailed for South Africa; and once on 
the broad ocean, away from " please remits/' drafts, and 
over-due notes, the worry and trouble ceased, and in its 
place came the " peace that passeth all understanding/' 

Dear old " Lunnon," and Southampton, and the 
steamer Scott / On this steamer I met the funniest lit- 
tle man, with the plaidiest and cheekiest of suits. His 
name was Napier. He told me that he and Finerty 
had for twenty years hunted elephants in Lobengula's 
domain, and that he had been to the Chicago Exposition 
and also Milwaukee — "beautiful Milwaukee!" I told 
him that I was born in Milwaukee, and leaning against 
the rail of that magnificent ocean acrobat, the steamship 
Scott, of the Union line, he said to me : 

" Milwaukee ? This is a beautiful day and an elegant 
ship." 

" Yes, Mr. Napier ; to me this trip means everything 
-—a renewal of health, vitality, courage and ambition." 

" Yes," mused he, " ambition, ambition ! Willis, I 
think, wrote, ' How like a mountain devil in the heart 
rules this unreined Ambition. Let it once play the ty- 
rant and its brow glows with a beauty which bewilders 
thought and unthrones peace forever/ " Then, after a 
short reverie, he said to me, " Milwaukee, old man, 
would you have a small bottle of fizz with me ? " 

He said this with an accent of doubt. You see, he 
hadn't known me long. I accepted, and he made it two 
bottles. I took this as a genuine omen of coming good 



122 Jim Wardner. 

luck. Many times he asked me to join him in a cold 
bottle, with the same accent of doubt ! 

One day, after another invitation, I said : " Mr. 
Napier, we have not been long acquainted ; you do not 
know me very well. I have noticed that when you ask 
me to join you in a cold bottle there has been, as it were, 
a doubt in your mind as to my acceptance. This has 
worried me, and I felt that you did not know me. Let 
us have a full understanding. Never overlook me." 

He liked this, and we were " ever after friends." In 
fact, I was always his friend. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

AFRICA. 

After fourteen days on the billowy sea, and after 
stopping at the beautiful Madeiras, waltzing through 
the Bay of Biscay, gazing at night upon the heavens, 
canopied at times east, west v north, and south with rain- 
bows changeable as chameleons and with hues as dis- 
tinct as the stripes on " Old Glory/' bathing in the de- 
licious waters of the tropics, and standing spellbound for 
hours wondering at the magnificence of an African sun- 
set, we arrived at Cape Town, November 13, 1893. 

Cape Town— beautiful white city of the southern seas, 
city of cabs, Kaffirs, and coffee, city of gorgeously attired 
Malay girls, with heads like a pin and bustles like a bar- 
rel, England's hospital for foundling officers, city where 
the sleepless customs officer carefully searches your 
luggage ! Here is my experience: 

Customs Officer — Read that notice. 

Black Cat Rancher (after reading) — All right. 

C. O. — Have you any of these contraband goods in 
your luggage ? 

B. C. R— No, sir. 

C. O. — Have you any extra suits of clothes, revolvers, 
watches, tobacco, jewelry of any kind, cigars, guns, 
extra underclothing, medicine, or extra smoking to- 
bacco ? 

B. C. R.— No, sir. 

C. O. — Well, well, what have you got in those valises ?• 

B. C. R— Nothing. 

C. O. — Open them quick. (Looks in.) D d if that 

ain't correct. Pass him. 

When the great ship touched the African dock, the 
writer was the first ashore. He found himself amid the 
cries of Kaffirs, Malays, Abyssinians, who talked a 
mixed jargon not understandable, but not so bad indeed 



124 Jim Wardner. 

after two weeks in the same room with a Dutchman, 
a Lancashire man and another Englishman. When 
old England teaches her sons to talk, and accepts the 
decimal system of coinage, and changes the present 
abominable system of railway carriages, she Will have 
made another step toward those improvements which, I 
am prouder than ever to know, our own glorious and 
intelligent country is always taking the lead in. 

Cape Town — progressive and prosperous, beautiful 
beyond anticipation, thermometer 90 degrees, breezy 
as a fan. In her parks a thousand Malay and Kaffir 
girls trundling a thousand richly dressed white babies. 
At three o'clock in the afternoon a brass band alter- 
nating with the bagpipes of twelve sturdy Highlanders 
furnished delightful music. 

As Cape Town was not my final destination, and as I 
had to be somewhere on the unlucky 13th, this time 
thirteen goes for naught. Nine p. m., and we are off 
amidst the hurrahs of hundreds (the arrival and de- 
parture of the Scotfs passengers is a marked occur- 
rence) for Johannesburg. The first five hundred miles 
of country after leaving Cape Town resembles very 
closely the sage-brush lands of Nevada, and is equally 
monotonous. The latter part of the journey, however, 
carries you through ostrich farms, millions of goats, 
sheep and oxen, and past a thousand estates of surpass- 
ing beauty. 

At five o'clock in the morning of the 16th we open 
our eyes at Elandfontein, ten miles from Johannesburg. 
What a sight in the clear cool African dawn to see from 
the pinnacle through the pure diamond-white atmos- 
phere the dumps and stacks of hundreds of mines and 
mills ; the passing panorama, as we sped to our des- 
tination, of thousands of naked Kaffirs going hither and 
thither, night shift and day shift; miles of ox teams with 
thousands of tons of merchandise for interior distribu^ 
tion ; hundreds of mules in teams of from four to six 
spans, heavily laden ; the engines, mills and machin- 
ery, whistling, roaring and grumbling, and withal, a 
matchless African morning, for on God's green earth 
you find it nowhere more perfect. Away in the dis- 
tance were long buildings for chlorination and longer 
ones for the cyanide process, and big long trains of 



Africa. 125 

oxen and mules, commencing at the initial point as a 
reality and ending like an animate black line ten miles 
away down the broad red road. 

At six o'clock on the morning of November 16th 
Johannesburg was reached, and here comes a coinci- 
dence—the gentleman who registered before me at the 
Grand Central Hotel wrote his name as follows : " E. S. 
Hincks, Whatcom, Wash., U. S. A." Yes, Teddy left 
Whatcom on September 16th, took in Chicago, left 
New York on October 15th on the Storm King, and 
arrived in Johannesburg on the same train as the writer. 

During my sojourn in Africa I made a trip to Pretoria, 
the beautiful capital city of the Boer Republic. It was 
my luck to meet President Kriiger, with whom I had 
coffee. Oom Paul is very like the pictures we have 
seen of him. His face is stamped with lines of deter- 
mination, but I found him very pleasant notwithstanding. 
He said to me : 

" You are an Englishman ? M 

" No, Mr. President," I replied, " I came from a coun- 
try that gained its independence a good deal the same 
way that your country has ; I am an American." 

" Very glad to see you, sir," he remarked, and reach* 
ing under the table he picked up a paper, and read to 
me that Baron Rothschild had said that the Americans 
were a " Nation of Spendthrifts/' 

I told him that I had kangarooed all over the world, 
and that I was not up on our national finances and 
internal affairs, but being aware of the fact that the 
salary of his Excellency, presiding over two millions of 
people, was the same as President Cleveland's, who 
presided over about seventy millions, I felt that the 
Baron's statement was not right 

He lau^ned, and, pointing to four gentlemen ap- 
proaching, said that they were dynamiters coming to 
see him. 

I " pulled my freight," and while passing the quartette 
I found that they were a committee from Johannesburg, 
on a mission regarding the tax rate on giant powder, or 
dynamite. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

SOME PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS ON OUR SOUTH AFRICAN 

TRADE. 

During my stay in Africa there was one thing that 
particularly attracted my attention, and that was the 
growing popularity in the Transvaal of Americans, 
American ways and manners, and especially of Amer- 
ican goods. Indeed, I was so impressed with this fact 
that it has occurred to me that Great Britain's ambition 
for supremacy in South Africa may have for one of its 
causes a knowledge of the rapid increase of our South 
African trade, and jealousy of us on that account. In 
an address to the Congress of the United States, upon 
my return, I wrote as follows : 

"Washington, D. C, February 26, 1894. 

"To the Congress of the United States : Will you 
permit me, as an American citizen, interested in the 
welfare of my country, to call your attention to a few 
facts and figures in regard to the increasing trade be- 
tween this country and South Africa ? Having just re- 
turned from an extended trip through that prosperous 
country and noted with pleasure the interest taken in 
matters American and the British general fear and ap- 
preciation of our rapid innovations into their most profit- 
able territory, I submit the following as tersely as 
possible : 

"The total British exports to South Africa for the 
first nine months of 1893 were six million four hundred 
and thirty-two thousand and thirty-eight pounds ster- 
ling, and for the year, over forty million dollars. The 
exports for October, 1893, were one hundred thousand 
pounds sterling, or five hundred thousand dollars, in ex- 
cess of October, 1892. These exports cover every vari- 
ety of manufactured goods. In return, Great Britain 
received from South Africa in gold, silver, diamonds, 



Perso?ial Observations on Our South African Trade. 127 

ivory, wool, hides, ostrich feathers, etc., over thirty 
million dollars. Now, when we consider that over 75 
per cent, of these exports and imports are to and from 
the South African Republic and Orange Free State, as 
republican and anti-British as we are, or should be, then 
certainly the inference is, we should cherish and en- 
courage mutual trade relations. 

" I quote the following from the British and South 
African Export Gazette, a leading commercial paper : 

11 ' December 1, 1893. — The increased extent to which 
South African millers are using American wheat this 
year is shown in the fact that during the month of Octo- 
ber five thousand and ninety pounds sterling, and dur- 
ing the nine months fifty-six thousand and sixty pounds 
sterling, were dispatched, as against only ninety-two 
pounds sterling for nine months of 1892/ 

" Again, the same paper calls attention to the enor- 
mous increase in the receipts of American goods at 
Cape Town — flour, oil, beer, and all kinds of agricul- 
tural implements, cutlery, and manufactured cottons 
making up the bulk. Of the six million dollars' worth 
of machinery used in the South African Republic, over 
one-half was manufactured in Chicago. In short, the 
commercial indications are great, and the United States 
should point with pride to her commercial relations 
with Africa. 

" From the port of Mobile are now dispatched vessels 
laden with millions of feet of lumber for African use, 
and as American mining managers increase in Africa 
the demand for American goods increases. 

u While at the Crown Reef Mine I saw an order sent 
to Philadelphia for eight miles of iron pipe, and I know 
of the Primrose Mine sending an order to Puget Sound 
for one million feet of mining timber. 

"Two lines of steamers, forty ships in all, sail from 
Southampton to Cape Town. Hamburg also has a Ger- 
man line of eight boats. There has just started an 
American- African Line, and two ships have been dis- 
patched. Another leaves March 8th. She was offered 
four thousand tons of freight more than she can carry, 
and the carrying capacity of the line will be increased. 

" I refer to Hon. Watson C. Squire, Hon. Fred Dubois, 
Governor S. T. Hauser, Hon. Thomas Power, and Hon. 



128 Jim Wardner. 

John L. Wilson, 'as to my responsibility, and a reference 
by you to the American Consuls at Cape Town and 
Johannesburg will verify my statement. I write this 
simply in the interest of American trade.'' 

Later statistics have verified my expectations of the 
growth of our trade with South Africa. 

In the years '96 and '97 exports from the United States 
to Africa amounted to over seven million dollars 
and in '98 to over eight million dollars. A significant 
item is the vast increase in the exportation of wheat. 
For the year '93, the exports of wheat amounted to a 
little over $350,000. In '96 they had increased to nearly 
$3,000,000, in 97 to over $3,600,000, and in '98 to nearly 
$6,poo,ooo. These figures do not include manufactures 
of wheat, such as flour, which reaches a big sum, and 
other breadstuffs, barley, for instance, which in 1898 
amounted to nearly three-quarters of a million dollars. 
Oils, agricultural implements, cars, passenger and 
freight, tobacco, cigars, wood and manufactures of 
wood, furniture, iron, leather, and hog and beef products 
are important exports and show a gratifying increase in 
amount and value. An English authority states that 
exports from the United States to South Africa have 
quadrupled in the past ten years. 

Thus I have ever found that Americans "can't be 
beat." 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

ROSSLAND, B. C. 

On my return from Africa in 1895 I went to Kennedy, 
Nevada, a place about seventy miles from Winnemucca, 
and there operated what at first promised to be a bonanza 
in gold. I caused to be built for the owners a twenty- 
stamp mill, operated it successfully, disposed of my in- 
terest, and went to California. A genius in Jackson, 
Amador County, named George G. Gates, had invented 
and was working successfully a machine for saving 
gold from low-grade tailings. His income with one 
plant at the Kennedy mine was over $3,000 per month. 
I purchased of him certain rights, took large contracts 
from the Utica and Zeilla mines, and formed a company 
in Chicago, of which Mr. C. G. Betts and Samuel Mc- 
Pherrin were active members. I then sold my stock 
and struck out for Rossiand,B.C. The following " Extra" 
from the Rossland Miner explains my first deal, on which 
I made money ; 

•' ROSSLAND SOLD OUT. 



*jim wardner's syndicate buys every unsold lot. 



'THE PRICE IS $176,000. 



44 Biggest Real Estate Deal in the History of Kootenay — Pur- 
chasers are Montreal Millionaires and C. P. Ry. Officials — 
Wardner goes East. 

44 In our issue of last week we stated that James F. 
Wardner had organized a wealthy syndicate of Montreal 
capitalists to invest in British Columbia mining- proper- 
ties. As soon as he returned to Rossland he began 
looking up a proposition for his people, and he soon 
came to the conclusion that the Miner has long held — 



130 Jim War drier. 

namely, that the town-site of Rossland is the biggest 
gold mine of them all. 

"Having come to this conclusion Mr. Wardner set 
about securing an option on all the unsold lots on the 
town-site. To-day he holds an agreement, on which he 
has made the first payment, to deliver to him 842 lots 
for the lump sum of $176,000. 

" This is the biggest real estate deal ever made in 
Kootenay. Mr. Wardner leaves for Montreal to-mor- 
row afternoon at two o'clock. 

" As is well known, Mr. Wardner's syndicate includes 
several Montreal millionaires and some of the highest 
officers of the Canadian Pacific Railway." 

Rossland is one of the most wonderful camps in the 
world. The mines of that district have been success- 
fully productive and in most instances reliable and re- 
munerative. Some wonderful sales at astounding prices 
have been made. The Leroy, Center Star, War Eagle 
and Josie have each brought to the owners millions 
upon millions. 

The camp of Rossland is now largely in the hands of 
Canadian and English capitalists. Its railroad facilities 
are good, and taking into consideration the cheapness of 
the treatments and the freight I do not think there is 
another quartz camp on this hemisphere that has made 
such rapid and certain strides toward a great success. 

Rossland is noted everywhere as being one of the 
most peaceful mining camps. Now, would you have a 
glimpse of how law and order were maintained in Ross- 
land in 1896, then a town of six thousand inhabitants, 
brought together from wide areas, differing in their dis- 
positions and free from the restraints of orderly rela- 
tions ? The Montreal Gazette says : 

^ " Did you never hear tell of Jack Kirkup ? He stands 
six-feet-two in his stockings. He is built in proportion. 
He has a resolute eye and a voice which there is no 
denying. Jack Kirkup is the whole machinery of the 
law in his own proper person. He is a constable, re- 
corder and judge, and I don't know what else besides. 
He walks the street with a quiet air of authority which 
every man respects. If any miner should misbehave, 
Jack takes a look at him and utters one word — ' Get ! ' 

u That man crosses the boundary & once. Jack will 



Rossland, B. C. 131 

stand no fooling. He is tolerant, you know, as all big 
men are, and he does not mind a little thing. Thus, if 
two miners have a little quarrel and are disposed to 
fight it out, he will referee the fight. That is to say he 
will see fair play. And at a given moment he will 
say, i Stop ! ' ' You/ pointing to one of the fighters, 
/have got" licked. Now, be friends, and go to your 
work/ 

" A great character is Jack. No nonsense. It is true 
he has a constable to help a little, but the power 
lies with him and his word is law. He allows no thugs 
or ruffians to stay in the district. We had trouble 
once with a lot of fellows who came from Coeur d' Alene 
and who wanted our miners to form a combine against 
the owners, with the object of getting higher pay and 
shorter hours. They were scalawags, in short, and the 
respectable people were afraid of them, so a deputation 
called on Jack one day and explained the circum- 
stances. ' I tell you what you do/ said Jack. ' Manage 
to put a chalk-mark on the backs of the men you want 
out of . this, and in twenty-four hours there will not be 
one in the district/ 

" The mark was put on the backs of the most obnox- 
ious characters, and Jack was as good as his word. He 
cleared them out. I don't know how he did it. I know 
they left. One fellow talked about its being a free 
country, and such like nonsense. 

" ' You can have Kamloops (the jail, you know), or 
you can have freedom in the United States. Choose 
quick/ He chose the land of liberty/' 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THAT RAILROAD PASS. 

It was in connection with my promotion of the big 
real-estate deal in Rossland that the following incident 
occurred. Mr. George McL. Brown, of Vancouver, B. C, 
executive agent of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, will 
vouch for its accuracy. This is the way the story has 
been told : 

Jim Wardner, of Far Western mining fame — one of 
those mortals of such intense activity of mind and body 
that the best conditions of the present are naught 
by comparison with the possibilities of the future, 
and who are, therefore, in mining parlance, " up to-day 
and down to-morrow " — was a Milwaukee boy born and 
bred, and as a consequence was a young-man acquaint- 
ance of Hon. Thomas G. Shaughnessey, now president of 
the Canadian Pacific Railway, who was also a Milwau- 
keean. Some time ago Wardner returned from a min- 
ing trip to South Africa, and drifted up into the Ross- 
land district in British Columbia. There he struck a 
proposition which he believed he could promote to ad- 
vantage, provided he could reach Montreal. But Jim 
was "broke." However, he managed to reach Van- 
couver, and, walking into the headquarters' offices of 
the Canadian Pacific, said to the manager in charge : " I 
am Jim Wardner, and I am an old friend of Tom Shaugh- 
nessey's. Will you please wire him, and tell him that I 
am here i broke,' and want transportation to Montreal ? " 

The manager, somewhat impressed with Wardner's 
peculiar presence and address, telegraphed Mr. Shaugh- 
nessey : 

" Man named Jim Wardner, who says he is an old 
friend of yours, wants transportation to Montreal. Shall 
I give it to him ? " 

Back came the reply : " Don't let Jim walk." 

Wardner at once obtained transportation and left on 
the first train for the East. Arriving at Montreal, he 



That Railroad Pass. 133 

called at the general offices of the company to see Mr. 
Shaughnessey, to renew old acquaintance and thank 
him for the favor granted. A number of prominent 
Canadian gentlemen were present when Mr. Wardner 
entered Mr. Shaughnessey's office with a hearty greet- 
ing of his old friend, which was as heartily returned. 

M Hello, Mr. President ; so glad to see you and thank 
you." 

" Well, well, Jim, is this really you ? " Then, with the 
real Shaughnessey twinkle of the eye : " How under 
the heavens did you get here so soon if you were 'broke'?" 

M Why, Mr. President, thanks to your telegram, ■ Don't 
let Jim walk,' of course I was at once furnished trans- 
portation ; and here I am." 

" Confound those operators! " — with apparent severity, 
" It is strange they cannot get my messages through 
correctly ! " 

" Didn't you telegraph, ' Don't let Jim walk ' ? " inter- 
rupted Wardner. 

" Certainly not. My answer was : 'Don't I Let Jim 
walk!!"' 

But the later hospitalities heaped upon Jim thor- 
oughly assuaged his griefs, if he had any. 

It is with mingled feelings of amusement and dismay 
that I recall another instance of where a telegraphic 
message went wrong, for it did not afford me as much 
satisfaction as did my previous experience. 

I was just back from Cape Nome and had made up 
my mind that the gold find there was all that it was re- 
ported to be. It was really wonderful ! I do not sup- 
pose that I ought to tell this story on myself, but it is 
too good to keep. 

We had quite a time of it coming down on a boat 
from Alaska and we kept it up at Vancouver, so that I 
found myself overdue at home and I felt that some ex- 
planation was due. I went into a telegraph office and 
wrote out the following dispatch : " Have been indis- 
posed ; full particulars by letter." 

My hand, I will confess, was a trifle shaky, and in 
some way I ran the pencil through the word indisposed, 
so that the message went with that word left out. It 
was productive of a domestic upheaval, which is pain- 
ful for me even now to dwell upon. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

ONE ON THE DOCTOR. 

Speaking about railroad men, I never knew a railroad 
conductor or brakeman who was a mean man. Most of 
them have a joke up their sleeve, and the way they 
spring it on you makes your previous efforts to produce 
a joke look like thirty cents. The particular railroad 
conductor I have in mind is Mr. Charles Morrow, of 
Seattle. 

Now, Mr. Morrow has a big wen on his forehead, and 
of this he seems to be proud. It happened that while 
running over the top of a long freight train one dark 
night he struck something — and when he woke up he was 
lying on a clean white cot in the Providence Hospital, 
Seattle, terribly bruised and covered with bandages and 
splints, but still alive. Feeling himself, to see if he 
was all there, his hand moved to his head, and a smile 
passed over his poor black-and-blue countenance. See- 
ing the doctor approaching, he- asked : 

" See here, doctor ! come here. Am I badly hurt ? " 

u Yes, seriously. Now keep quiet, my boy.' 7 

•" But, doctor, where am I hurt the worst ? " 

•"Your head," the medico answered. " Serious con- 
tusions ; much swollen." 

" But, doctor, is it where you've got this big wad of 
plaster, linen and bandages?" (laying his well hand 
thereon). 

" Yes, my boy." 

" Well, doc, you might just as well let that d d 

©Id wen alone. You can't reduce him ; I've tried it for 
twenty years." 

Charles is now well again, and it gives him intense 
.pleasure to make the old doctor "set 'em up" all 
around. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

WARDNER, B. C. 

After my venture in town-sites I again turned to min- 
ing, and, in company with Gen. George Pfunder and 
several notable Montreal capitalists, got hold of the Co- 
lona mine, near Rossland. Accepting a favorable offer 
I sold out all my holdings in Rossland, and started for 
the Pacific Coast again. I met Capt. F. P. Armstrong 
on the Canadian Pacific train, and at once joined him in 
an enterprise which, but for the cold hand of fate, would 
have realized us both a great fortune. It was a big 
scheme. A new town was to be started in East Koo- 
tenay. It was to be called Wardner. The site selected 
was where the Crows' Nest Railroad would cross the 
Kootenay River. Armstrong and myself were to be the 
principal owners ; in fact, I was to have nine-tenths. 

We organized the International Transportation Com- 
pany ; I was elected president ; and we ran a line of 
steamers between Jennings, Montana, and Wardner, B. 
C. We got our town-site crown-granted, added to our 
line the beautiful new passenger steamer Ruth, and 
when navigation opened business commenced in good 
earnest. 

The Kootenay River is a torrential stream, navigation 
is extremely hazardous, and most careful pilotage is 
necessary. In fact, only three men live that dare run 
that river, namely, Capts. Sanborn, Miller, and Arm- 
strong. Our boats would make the passage up in three 
days, and come down in eight hours. 

To resume. Navigation opened late in April ; the 
boats were loaded to the guards with freight and pas- 
sengers ; Wardner, B. C, was booming. Three clerks 
were employed making out contracts and deeds for town 
lots. Two hundred thousand dollars would not have 
purchased my big interest in the boats and the town. 
Both boats left Wardner May 7th, at nine o'clock in the 



136 Jim Wardner. 

forenoon. I remained in Wardner, to look after the 
real-estate end, let grading contracts, and so forth. 

On May 9th a courier dashed into Wardner with a 
letter from Capt. Armstrong. Great heavens ! my 
boats were both gone, and with my boats had perished 
a thousand hopes and resolutions. I had said, " On 
Christmas day I will not owe a man a dollar." Home 
was to be adorned, and the wants of those near and 
dear to me were to be filled. Reader, I have lost and 
won thousands of dollars, but I was stunned and dazed. 
However, I soon recuperated, for I philosophized: 
" Have you not still your eyes, ears, legs, and appetite, 

and " Patience, dear reader. In company with Thomas 

Crahan and Mr. Stevens I jumped into a small boat and 
shot down that roaring, rising, wicked stream. We 
made 150 miles, and before dark were at the canon. I 
found Capt. Armstrong in good spirits, but Capt. 
Sanborn was feeling badly. He is the best swift-water 
man in the world to-day. He could not live on smooth 
water. He had run steamers on all the most rapid 
streams in Washington, and is the only man that ever 
steamed up the treacherous Coeur d'Alene. This was 
his first accident. 

We organized another company and built another 
boat, but too late — the water had fallen, the boom in 
Wardner lots was over. I sacrificed my stock and my 
town, and started for the Klondike. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE LOSS OF THE STEAMBOATS. 

From the Spokane Spokesman-Review is taken the 
following account of the loss of the steamers Ruth and 
Gwendolyne, just referred to, and the bravery exhibited 
at the time by the wife of Captain Sanborn of the Ruth, 
The account says : 

"The Transportation Company lose from' $40,000 
to $50,000, with no insurance. They were literally 
swamped w T ith business. The double wreck leaves 
them without a boat. 

"J. F. Wardner, who is president of the company, has 
been notified of the loss by courier. 

" A hundred passengers were in waiting at Jennings, 
and over fifty carloads of merchandise must be diverted 
elsewhere. 

" The particulars of the wrecking of the steamers 
Ruth and Gwendolyne, on the Kootenay, bring to light 
the coolness and courage of the wife of Captain San- 
born, of the Ruth; and her part in the memorable event 
is told in the following graphic description of the sinking 
of the steamers, given by J. F. Harris, one of those on 
board the Ruth : 

" ' We left Fort Steele, at five o'clock in the morning, 
with twenty-two persons aboard, passengers and crew. 
We had a beautiful run down the river, and took on 
eighty tons of North Star ore at Tobacco Plains. We 
ran into the canon, five miles from Jennings, about 
5:30 last evening, and were running down with the 
swift current and backing water. The river was rising, 
and carried much driftwood. When the steamer was in 
one of the worst places in the cafion a long log drifted 
under the wheel and caught in the rudder. It was sim- 
ply impossible for Captain Sanborn to handle the boat, 
and she quickly drifted on a rocky point in midstream. 



138 Jim Wardner. 

The river at that point is about 250 feet wide, and 
runs like a mill-race. It all happened quickly, and 
Captain Sanborn, though wonderfully cool, level-headed 
and courageous, was powerless to avert the disaster. 

" i When the steamer struck, the bow swung around 
and sank. Mrs. Sanborn was one of the coolest persons 
aboard. She called out for every one to keep cool, as 
there was no danger, and her courage and confident 
bearing had a fine effect on the passengers and crew. 
There was no excitement, and all behaved admirably. 

" ' The passengers and crew crowded upon the little 
rock in the wild water. There was not enough dry sur- 
face for all, and some of us had to stand on a flat rock 
a few inches under water. The water rushed through 
the wreck, and in five minutes had torn the boat to 
pieces. Almost nothing was saved. Two or three saved 
their valises, but that was all. I did not have time even 
to take the money from my till. The company, how- 
ever, saved its books and papers. 

" * We saved one of the lifeboats, and with that the 
passengers and crew were ferried ashore. Mrs. San- 
born was the last person to leave the rock, positively 
refusing to leave until all others were taken ashore. 

" ' Before all the passengers and crew of the Ruth were 
taken ashore, the steamer Gwendolyne, commanded by 
Captain Armstrong, came around the bend unexpect- 
edly. Captain Armstrong took in the situation at a 
glance, and realized his danger. He was in the course 
for the regular channel, but that was obstructed by the 
wreck of the Ruth. He tried to make the other chan- 
nel, but could not do it. The Gwendolyne swung against 
the Ruth, and soon broke in two. About twenty persons 
were aboard. They clambered to the wreck of the 
Ruth, and from that to the rock upon which we had 
been saved. The fate of the Ruth was quickly re- 
peated by that of the Gwendolyne. Both steamers are 
total wrecks, and the river is strewn with wreckage as 
far down as Bonner's Ferry — furniture, mattresses, and 
pieces of broken boat. I did not save a thing. 

" ' Four of us walked into Jennings last night. The 
others, crews and passengers of both boats, built a big 
bonfire on the bank and remained there until this morn- 
ing, having nothing to eat and no bedding. They strag- 






The Loss of the Steamboats. 139 

gled into Jennings this morning, some coming down the 
river in boats and some walking. 

" ' There was no excitement at any time, and the twa 
captains behaved with admirable presence of mind, 
coolness and courage. They did everything that man 
could do to save their boats ; but it was an impossi- 
bility/ " 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

KLONDIKE. 

While the trip to the Klondike is not always enjoyable 
and is at times perilous, yet the hardships have been 
much exaggerated and are now lessened to a great ex- 
tent However, it all depends upon conditions, i. e., 
whether you carry your own load or whether somebody 
else carries it for you. 

I left Lake Bennett on the Queen's birthday with four 
barge-loads of goods, many passengers, and my own 
private boat. The trip was hazardous and extremely 
unfortunate, as I lost one barge with its entire con- 
tents in Miles' Cafion, the other one had its contents 
ruined in White Horse Rapids, and my own boat met 
with a series of mishaps and had many narrow escapes 
from floating ice and hidden rocks. I was indeed glad 
to reach Dawson with the rest of my outfit, which 
barely got me out even. 

The market at that time was extremely good in Daw- 
son. For instance, I sold 135 boxes of oranges and 
lemons for $100 per box ; 10,000 cigars at $ 350 per 
i, 000 ; and whiskey sold for $100 per gallon, and I had 
with me 100 gallons. These fortunate sales saved me 
from heavy losses. The Dawson market is strictly a 
market of supply. The demand is always good, but the 
supply regulates the price. 

I then turned my attention to gold mining ; got hold 
of a splendid claim on the Old Channel, and left for the 
States to solve the problem of economical melting of 
frozen ground in the Klondike. I had scarcely reached 
civilization when the gold fever broke out in Atlin, B. C, 
with renewed vigor. In the midwinter of 1898 I again 
left Bennett, traveling over the ice 200 miles to Atlin. 
About this time the British Columbian Government 
passed an alien law, a law both disagreeable and un- 
profitable to me. In the early spring I took to my boat 



Klondike. 141 

again, and floated through the chain of lakes and down 
the mighty Yukon some 700 miles, arriving without 
mishap in Dawson in July. Here I found my son, 
Jackson Hadley Wardner, with his young wife and little 
daughter — who is the first white girl born in Dawson, 
of which fact we all are very proud. 

I had hardly time to pay my respects to Col. Steele, 
when, from 1,760 miles to the westward, on the 22d of 
July, 1899, came the news that gold had been discovered 
on the beach at Cape Nome by W. C. Slade and Wm. 
Thorn waite. 

When I received private information of the authen- 
ticity of the great gold strike at Cape Nome (of which I 
shall say more hereafter in this book) I was off like a shot. 
In fact, no power on earth could have stopped me. This 
information came to me about noon, and that evening 
I took the C. J. Hamilton and arrived in St. Michael's, 
a distance of over 2,000 miles down-stream, nine days 
afterward. That evening all my hopes, wishes, and de- 
sires in regard to this great gold country were verified 
by many old friends and acquaintances, and not having 
a moment to spare that night I took the steamer Dis- 
covery. A tempestuous gale turned into a howling hur- 
ricane, but when we arrived off Cape Nome the sea had 
subsided, yet the swells were enormous. Capt. Hall in- 
formed me that until the sea went down passengers 
could not be landed safely — indeed, he did not think he 
would land any passengers that day. The fact is, there 
was a big swell on, but from the deck of the steamboat 
this rising and falling with the swell did not appear to 
me to be very serious, and I did not realize the danger 
of the surf. I determined to land at the first opportu- 
nity. 

Many minutes had not elapsed before, striking out 
through the surf, came a little white dory. At intervals 
it could be seen, now on the highest billow and then 
plunged down out of sight. As the boat neared our 
steamer I saw only one man at the oars. It was with 
great difficulty that he threw on the lower deck a pack- 
age of valuable papers for an officer of the Alaska Com- 
mercial Company. As he came down in his little boat 
on one of those billows, I exclaimed, " How much 
to take me ashore ? " From 'way down in the depths a 



142 Jim Wardner. 

voice answered, " Five dollars." I said, "All right," and 
regardless of my baggage, which was not much, as that 
little boat came rising up to the lower deck I made a 
jump, and in a moment I was soaring far above. Away 
we went, now on the crest of the highest billow and 
again down where a wall of sea was almost upon us. She 
rode it like a duck, and he, with that consummate skill 
inborn in a Danish boatman, watching his opportunity, 
entered the surf and put that little boat on the crest of 
a beach comber that seemed too feet high, and there 
we held our position. He rowed for dear life, and had we 
lost our position we should certainly have been engulfed. 
On, on we went, he battling to maintain the speed of 
that wave, and never ceasing his skillful efforts, until we 
landed with our boat within fifteen feet of Dick Daw- 
son's " Cabinet Saloon/' safe and dry. After hustling 
quickly out of the boat I was surrounded by numerous 
friends and acquaintances. So great were the stories 
they told of Cape Nome that, even with my proverbial 
aptitude to disbelieve nothing in the gold line, I stood 
and listened in wonder. But there it was, and there was 
my old friend, " Tough-Nut Jack," with a poke of gold 
worth $6,000, and there were Dawson, Walters, Capt. 
Slade, Linderberg, and all the Swedish population, 
" Cherokee Bob," Chas. Simpson,* Tom Nestor, Billy 
Nestor, Billy Chappell, Briggs, Hyde, Strout, Billy 
Walton, and fifteen hundred others with money to burn, 
and all told me they were making from $50 to $100 a 
day off that golden beach. 






CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

GOOD-BYE. 

And now, with all the glowing aspirations and ambi- 
tions of twenty-five years ago, I will bid you good-bye. I 
am off to Cape Nome again, where I expect to pile up a 
colossal fortune, the foundations of which have already 
been laid by my partner, " Tough-Nut Jack." This is, 
indeed, my last venture ; and when, dear reader, you are 
perusing this book, surrounded by comforts and all the 
luxuries of life, think kindly of the writer, whose trail 
has been covered with hardships, and who, if success- 
ful in this last and biggest struggle, will return to his 
own dear ones, there to remain until the book of life is 
closed and he joins the great stampede to the Golden 
City of the New Jerusalem, there to meet the kindred 
mining spirits and talk over the prospects in our 
heavenly camp. 

Now, in closing, with love to all and malice toward 
none, I ask merely this : That the little marble marker 
at my head bear only the sweet tribute of " Barbarian " 
Brown: 

" Oh, where, and oh, where has Jim Wardner gone ? 
Oh, where, and oh, where is he ? 
With his tales of gold and his anecdotes old, 
And his new discover-ee !" 



- e ^s>^^ 




APPENDIX. 

EUREKA NOME ! 

We are told on unimpeachable authority that 
" Heaven is paved with gold." Cape Nome, on the 
Behring* Sea, Alaska, is not heavenly from an atmos- 
pheric or climatic point of view all the year round, but 
for Nature's gold paving it is a heaven on earth. The 
very sands on the seashore are yellow with the precious 
metal and the under stratum is dotted with nuggets of 
more than ordinary size. 

This new miners' Mecca is about two hundred and 
twenty-five miles north and west of the mouth of the 
Yukon River, and one hundred and thirty-five miles 
from Healy, St. Michael's Island. I have seen most of 
the gold-mining regions on this mundane sphere and 
can truthfully say that none compare with Nome. It is 
the most remarkable gold-mining region at present in 
the world, if not in the entire history of gold-mining. 

Regarding the description of the Cape Nome mining 
country I have no hesitation in saying that as far as 
discovered the sands of the seashore carry more or less 
gold from a point two hundred and fifty feet out to sea 
and beyond low tide, thence inland to the tundra, or 
Siberian marsh, a distance of about five hundred feet. 
I have prospected these sands at intervals on the beach 
for thirty-five miles ; the values, I found, were exceed- 
ingly uniform. The tundra will probably average about 
eight feet higher than the beach, that is, above high 
tide. The tundra is a mossy, tufty morass, containing 
water on the surface in summer and ice to an indefinite 
depth. It has not been prospected to any great extent, 
but a number of thawing machines were sent up there 
recently, and undoubtedly before this time they have 
gone deep into the frozen depths of the tundra. 

My theory is that the tundra contains more or less 



146 Jim Wardner. 

gold, which will be gotten at when the sand is reached, 
and will probably be from eight to ten feet below the 
surface of the tundra. This, when found, will be in 
places on the ancient beach of Behring Sea, where gold 
was deposited in vast quantities previous to the reced- 
ing of the sea. This tundra runs from high tide back 
to the foothills with a very gradual slope. Reaching the 
foothills, I found the unmistakable evidences that once 
the tides reached this point. Again, regarding the tun- 
dra, I found evidences of the old creek and river beds 
of ancient days. These creeks are now named Penny, 
Snake, and Nome, and there are numberless unnamed 
swales and gullies, now dry, whose waters have been 
diverted into other channels. The gold in the tundra 
unquestionably came from the various gulches, which 
are now being worked for placer, in the foothills and 
mountains, from seven to fourteen miles from the 
beach. 

Now, again, regarding the beach, I might add that 
the gold taken from it up to date has been extracted 
from the sand by means of the rocking process. In no 
place have the lower-grade sands been worked, miners 
preferring to work nothing that paid less than $25 per 
day. As the work of a rocker and two men does not 
exceed, in ten hours, the washing of over two good- 
sized washtubs of sand, it is easy to imagine how little 
of the country has been disturbed. I panned, many 
times, the tailings of the miners, and in no instance was 
the result less than $20 to the ton. I made these de- 
ductions by weighing the gold and allowing thirty 
pounds of sand to the miner's pan. By the -rocking 
process I am certain it is impossible to extract more 
than fifty per cent, of the gold values. 

Mr. D. O'Hara says : " I went down the river from 
Dawson about July 1st, arriving at Nome about the 
time of the beach strike. I bought out the right of 
William Whittlesey to a bit of the beach and went 
to work with my partner. In just eight days we 
rocked out $1,000. In the claim adjoining ours, at the 
mouth of a small gulch running out of the tundra, two 
men took out $600 the first day, $1,200 the second day, 
and three men on the third day took out $1,500." 

I saw pretty good evidence that the gold was not 



Eureka — Nome ! 147 

deposited there by the action of the sea, for I found four 
nuggets right at the edge of the tundra, the largest 
worth $1.67 and the next $1.10. I don't think there is 
any doubt that every inch of the tundra for a dis- 
tance of eight miles back from the coast contains pay. 
Mr. Ringstaff, formerly a well-known shoe dealer of 
Seattle, and Noble Wallingford, took a large number of 
pans at least a mile back from the tundra on the edge 
of Cripple River bottom. They never failed to get from 
forty to fifty colors, and found as high as 20 cents to the 
pan. John Grindle has a claim on the bank of Cripple 
River for which he has refused $5,000. I have located 
eight claims in the region and consider it the richest belt 
of placer in the world. I have been about 50 miles up the 
coast and over about 200 miles of territory. It all looks 
just alike and gold can be found everywhere over it. 

I was all through Norton Sound in a sloop, but saw 
little until we got to Topock, about twenty miles below 
Galovin Bay, where the Bonanza district begins. This 
district extends up to Cape Nome, and the Cape Nome 
district extends from the cape about twenty miles to a 
point four miles below Penny River. Here the Sinrock 
district joins on and runs about forty miles further up 
the coast. 

I saw a man who had been over on the Siberian 
shore. He asserted that diggings could be found there 
as valuable as at Nome. I also saw several men from 
Cape York. That locality has been surface-prospected 
only, but it is said to be a country similar to Nome, ex- 
cept that plenty of wood is to be found there. 

I tested the ground at Nome in many places. Dry 
Creek is rich, but there is no water to work with. Dex- 
ter is good, and Millionaire Chas. D. Lane is putting in 
a pumping plant to work with. I took out of one of 
Wallingford's claims on Quartz Creek as high as $1.85 
to the pan, on the bed-rock of the rim. I don't think 
there is any of the beach sand that is not worth at 
least $5 a yard. Where rockers were worked it was 
possible to put about two and one-half yards through 
each day, and this averaged from $16 to $25 a yard 
where the top was shoveled away and the pay-streaks 
followed. As high as $50 a yard was found. Now, by 
operating sluice-boxes, a man can shovel in about twenty 



143 Jim Wardner. 

yards a day of that kind of soil, which is exceedingly 
easy to handle. Where sluicing is used it will pay to 
handle over every bit of the ground which was worked 
last summer. Pumping plants will be used largely next 
season. 

It is going to be a great country for quartz. I regard 
it as highly probable that the gold comes out of ledges 
in the hills back of the coast. These hills average about 
i, 600 feet high near the coast, while the main range, 
from sixteen to eighteen miles inland, is about 3,000 to 
4,000 feet high. The formation is largely granite, slate, 
limestone, some porphyry, and much quartz. I have 
never seen any other region where there is so much 
quartz, and there is certainly mineral in it. An)r of the 
miners can tell you of the many lumps of solid 
sulphurets of iron to be found on the beach. Back a 
little way I have picked up many specimens, as large 
as a man's hand, of the same sulphurets. The country 
is full of graphite, too. I saw several beds. One at 
Dexter, on Galovin Bay, was eight to ten feet wide. 

But for the scarcity of wood it would be a very easy 
country to prospect, much easier to get about in with 
pack animals than the Klondike region ; but the mos- 
quitoes are frightful, worse than any place I have been 
on the Yukon or anywhere else. 

Mr. J. H. McPherson, of Sioux City, Iowa, made the 
banner record of the beach for forty-two days. A ver- 
batim copy of the forty-two days' work, at $16 per 
ounce, is as follows : July 28, $185 ; July 29, $64 ; July 
30, $84.10; July 31, $152.65; Aug. 1, $143; Aug. 2, 
$145.52 ; Aug. 3, $179 ; Aug. 4, $98.71 ; Aug. 5, $102 ; 
Aug. 6, $113.85 ; Aug. 7, $188.40 ; Aug. 8, $245 ; Aug. 9, 
$318 ; Aug. 10, $187; Aug. 11, $370 ; Aug. 16, $447 ; Aug. 
17, $415; Aug. 18, $512.75; Aug. 19, $530; Aug. 20, 
$295 ; Aug. 21, $165.40 ; Aug. 22, $106 ; Aug. 23, $313.60; 
Aug. 24, $244.40; Aug. 25, $272 ; Aug. 26, $456 ; Aug. 
27, $401.40 ; Aug. 28, $56 ; Aug. 29, $74 ; Aug. 30, $128 ; 
Aug. 31, $128 ; Sept. 2, $170.40 ; Sept. 3, $92 ; Sept. 4, 
$50; Sept. 5, $188; Sept. 7, $140.80; Sept. 8, $124; 
Sept. 9, $68; Sept. 10, $81 ; Sept. 11, $100. Total for 
the forty-two days, $8,403.10. 

The gold-fields of this part of Alaska are not restricted 
to the vicinity of Cape Nome, as glowing reports have 



Eureka — Nome ! 149 

come from Clarence Sound, Cape York and Cape Prince 
of Wales. Galovin Bay has made a record, and the 
placers that will be discovered in the interior of the 
peninsula, with the developments up to date, certainly 
warrant the expected rush. 

Dr. Kittleson, Recorder, says in reply to a question as 
to Cape Nome's richness : " The gold is there and in 
great quantities. It is a rich district. The creeks alone 
produced about $1,500,000 worth of dust this season, and 
the beach-diggings perhaps as much more. It is hard 
to tell just what the beaches did yield, but I think the 
total output of the district the past season was not far 
short of $3,000,000. The beaches are much more ex- 
tensive than people suppose. They have been pros- 
pected and found to pay for a distance of forty miles 
above and below Nome City. For that matter, I think 
the whole section from Norton Bay to Cape Prince of 
Wales, a distance o£ two hundred and fifty miles, con- 
tains gold, and in some places the ground is very rich. 
It would be hard to say how far back from the sea it 
extends, but colors have been found as far to the interior 
as the prospector has worked." 

James M. Wilson, president of the Alaska Commercial 
Company, says in regard to Cape Nome : " The beaches, 
I think it is safe to say, yield an average of $20 or $25 
per day to the men, and that is a big thing. They are 
also finding more or less gold in the tundra. In truth, 
there seems to be gold all over that section, which is in 
reality so large that it has not even been prospected 
yet. What is my opinion as to the source of gold on the 
beaches ? Well, I don't think it comes from the sea. 
That is all fable. To my notion it was washed down 
from the mountains through the medium of the Snake 
and Nome rivers. When it reached the sea it was 
washed and churned about — scattered all over the 
beach, in fact." The foregoing testimony corroborates 
mine. 

A town was naturally located between the Snake 
and Nome rivers, and was called Anvil City. Later 
in the season, however, it was incorporated and the 
name changed to Nome City, which is now the me- 
tropolis of the Nome district. It is a full-fledged city, 
and has municipal officers as follows : T. D. Cashel, 



150 Jim Wardner. 

Mayor ; Alonzo Rawson, Judge ; James P. Rudd, Treas- 
urer ; D. P. Harrison, Clerk ; Dr. Gregg, Health Officer; 
Key Pitman, City Attorney ; D. K. B. Glenn, Surveyor; 
W. M. Eddy, Chief of Police ; W. J. Allen, Chief of Fire 
Department ; Geo. N. Wright, W. Robertson, C. P. Dam, 
A. J. Lowe, Charles Pennington, and W. J. Donovan, 
Councilmen. 

The town is building up rapidly, and this spring it 
will probably be a metropolis of many thousands. Three 
great commercial companies, viz., the North American 
Trading and Transportation Company, the Alaska Com- 
mercial Company, and the Alaska Exploration Com- 
pany, have large establishments, carrying every con- 
ceivable class of merchandise ; but there will be hotels, 
breweries, steam laundries and every conceivable busi- 
ness represented later on. Money will be made by the 
cartload by thousands who are intelligent and fortunate; 
steamships will come in fleets, and sailing vessels by 
hundreds, laden with coal, lumber, machinery, and beer 
to this Eldorado of the North. Vessels should leave 
Seattle as early as May 15 th, and it is advisable to secure 
passage at the earliest convenience. 

Among the many new establishments to be erected at 
Cape Nome we notice the following : 

" The Hotel Nunivak, 
" Nome City, Cape Nome District, Alaska, 
" Operated by the Nunivak Hotel Co., 
" T. C. Healy, Gen. Mgr., 
m Will open about June 15th. One hundred rooms. 
Xadies' and Gentlemen's grill room. American and 
European plan. Electrically lighted throughout. Tele- 
phone service connecting rooms with office. Rooms 
single and en suite, with bath. Also the best of 
service." 

Mr. T. C. Healy formerly ran the Regina Club Hotel 
at Dawson, and was very successful. This immense new 
hotel will be designed at Seattle, lumber will be cut and 
fitted, and every article of household and kitchen fur- 
niture will be purchased in Seattle. A large vessel will 
be exclusively loaded with the material and furniture 
for this hotel, and Mr. Healy confidently expects to be 
.ready for guests and have everything in first- class 



Eureka — Nome ! 151 

1 
working order two weeks after the arrival of the build- 
ing material. 

Among the many big projects for Nome are an electric 
light plant, telephone connection, and a street railway. 
Chas. E. Rosner, a Nome City attorney, interested with 
Dr. H. C. Wilkinson in various enterprises pertaining to 
the celebrated district, intends, with Chicago and San 
Francisco capitalists who have been granted a franchise 
by the Nome City council, to construct a street railway 
and an electric light and telephone system for the me- 
tropolis of the new district. It is their purpose to ship 
north the necessary material for all three concerns just 
as soon as navigation will permit. They have under- 
taken to build about nine miles of electric road. Begin- 
ning in the heart of Nome City, which is at the mouth 
of Snake River, it will extend along the auriferous 
beach five miles to the mouth of Nome River. Another 
branch is to be extended four miles to the mines on 
Anvil Creek. The lighting system will be only for the 
town proper, but the telephone will be extended over 
the municipal section and also to the principal creeks of 
the district. 

I have been asked hundreds of times these questions : 

" How do you prepare for the gold-fields of the North- 
west, and which is the best way to get there ? " 

To the first query I cannot give you a better answer 
than that given by the MacDougall & Southwick Com- 
pany, of Seattle, Wash., which is : 

" Many who fail in their search for gold can directly 
attribute their failure to their carelessness at the time 
of outfitting. They do not seem to realize that their 
success, their health, and perhaps their lives, depend 
upon securing a sufficient outfit of the very best quality 
especially designed for the Arctic climate, and having 
their outfit packed so that no matter what hardship it 
passes through the contents will be uninjured. 

" Many starting for the Alaska gold-fields make the 
mistake of shopping around, asking numerous mer- 
chants for quotations on flour, bacon, coffee, baking 
powder, tea, etc. The reliable merchant who is familiar 
with the demands of the country will quote you prices 
on the very best grades of everything ; while the un- 
principled merchant handles the very cheapest flour 



i 5 2 Jim War dner. 

made bacon unfit for use even in this country, cheap 
adulterated coffee, trashy baking powder, and so on 
throughout the entire list, quoting prices that reliable 
goods cannot be sold at. The unprincipled dealer, 
knowing that not one in a thousand inspects the goods 
as they are packed, or checks the weights, will quote 
you prices a trifle lower than the reputable dealer ; and 
you feel that you have saved $8 or $10 on your provis- 
ions, when, in fact, you have jeopardized the success of 
your trip, endangered your health and life by securing 
provisions which are of the poorest quality, and which 
will probably be totally unfit for use when on the trail 
a couple of weeks. . ,,.... 

" The same error is made in the selection of clothing. 
For instance, the reliable dealer quotes you a genuine 
Mackinaw suit at $9.50 ; the unreliable fellow offers you 
a suit at $3.50; which is the worst shoddy. The $9.50 
suit will be worth every cent of the price asked, the 
other perhaps not worth a cent. After you are once on 
the trail, your opportunities for buying are past ; you 
must make the trip with the outfit you have or turn back 
"You naturally ask : ' How shall I decide and guard 
against such fatal errors?' Our advice is, when you 
arrive in Seattle, visit some old-established house, ex- 
amine the goods offered, insist upon having the very 
best of everything, go into the packing room and see 
your goods weighed. Any reputable house will be glad 
to allow you to do this. Most important of all, see 
that your outfit is correctly packed, for, no matter how 
good an outfit you buy, it will be absolutely worthless 
before it has been on the trail a week if not properly 
packed. It is absolutely necessary that every package 
should be waterproof, as it will be exposed to all sorts 
of weather and usage, and the chances are that more 
than once before your outfit reaches the gold-fields it 
will be completely submerged. If improperly packed 
the entire outfit will be ruined, but if properly packed 
the contents of each package will reach their destina- 
tion in as good condition as when they started. 

The means of getting to Nome City are various. Ot 
course, reaching Seattle from any point south or east is 
plain sailing, but from Seattle north the best way 
is by either the North American Transportation and 



Eureka — Nome ! 153 

Trading Company s elegant steamer Roanoke or any of 
the steamers of the Pacific Clipper Line, which will 
manage the splendid steamers Chas. Nelson, Geo. W. 
Dickinson and the Cleveland. The Pacific Steam Whal- 
ing Company will also run the ai steamers Valencia, 
Jeannie, Excelsior and Thrasher^ and the Seattle 
Steamship Company will send a flyer every ten days. 
The Canadian Pacific Railway will have its usual fine 
equipment. The Seattle- Yukon Transportation Com- 
pany will have the new steamer Santa Ana and also the 
steamer Lakme. The Empire Line will also operate 
some very fine ships. 

With the ceasing of hostilities in the Philippines we 
may expect the return of the Athenian, Tartar and 
Garonne, and many more of these splendid passenger 
boats, to aid in carrying the vast crowd from Seattle to 
Nome. 

Passengers leaving San Francisco for Cape Nome will 
find fine accommodations on the boats of the Alaska 
Exploration Company. 

Not only is it possible to make money by taking gold 
out of Cape Nome, but money may also be made by 
taking commodities in. Here is an instance of the pos- 
sibilities in the latter line : 

At a point on the Yukon, about 750 miles from Cape 
Nome and about thirty miles above Rampart, possess- 
ing all the facilities for the cheapest kind of mining, 
there is located a coal mine, owned and operated by 
Mr. Thomas Drew, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is 
located on the river, and has every facility for the rais- 
ing and developing of the coal in the cheapest manner 
imaginable. So far the product of this mine has been 
sold to the various companies operating steamboats on 
the Yukon River, and much of it has been brought into 
Dawson. In the present condition of affairs and taking 
into consideration the fact that the coal from this mine 
can be taken by an all-water route, and down-hill at 
that, to all the new discoveries in Alaska, its value will 
at once be seen. The new and wonderful gold-bearing 
area now called Cape Nome is absolutely without fuel 
of any kind. The little driftwood that lay on the beach, 
which floated from the Yukon across Norton Sound into 
Behring Sea, and has lodged on the points and capes, 



154 Jim Wardncr. 

will all be exhausted this winter. The incoming popu- 
lation of 50,000 people will cry for fuel. 

As the distance from Seattle to Cape Nome is about 
2,400 miles by water, and from Drew's mine to Cape 
Nome is only 750 miles, the value of that property, it will 
be seen, is enormous. Certain expenditures are neces- 
sary, such as a new equipment of machinery, more de- 
velopments, and the maintenance of barges and tugs. 
The present price of coal in Cape Nome is $150 per ton. 
Mr. Drew, like myself in the case of the Blue CaSon 
coal mine, owns and operates his mine alone, and has 
sold enough to the transportation companies to develop 
his property and leave him a handsome money balance, 






SAILING FOR CAPE NOME 



About May ioth, 1900, 



Large and Magnificent Steamship, 



CENTENNIAL 



Consider carefully the advantages in com- 
fort and conveniences in traveling in a 
ship of this class as compared with steam- 
schooners and smaller vessels. Reserva- 
tions for passengers and freight made now. 
Apply to 

NORTHWESTERN COMMERCIAL CO., 

201-202 Pioneer Building, 
SEATTLE, WASH. 



MITCHELL, LEWIS and 
STAVER CO., 

Manufacturers and Dealers in 

FINING AAGHINERV 
AND SUPPLIES. 



Klondike Prospector, for Prospecting Under 

Water. 

Engine Boilers of all Sizes and Styles. 

Mechanical Gold Washer — Takes the place 
of ten men with rockers. 



308-310 FIRST AVENUE, SOUTH, 
SEATTLE, WASH. 



JIM WARDNER'S CAREER. 

He struck it Rich in Idaho and is now Fairhaven's most 
Enterprising Citizen. 

Mr. and Mrs. James F. Wardner registered 
at the Rainier yesterday. ' * Jim " Wardner, 
as he is familiarly known, has had a re- 
markable career, having made and lost sev- 
eral fortunes, until he now stalks on the 
top of the heap as a leading Bellingham 
Bay banker, and the owner of half a dozen 
paying mines. Jim made his last great 
stake up in Idaho, where he fathered a 
town near some mines that he owned, and 
the town is on the map still as M Wardner." 
The town appears to better advantage on 
the map— cuts more of a figure than it does 
tip in Idaho. But Jim sold out long before 
the mines petered and ere the boom died, 
and now he lives in the finest residence in 
Fairhaven, on a terraced hill, and his house 
is surrounded by a handsome park, designed 
by an expert gardener, decked out with 
rare flowers and shrubs. Then he owns 
the speediest horses in Fairhaven and has 
a finger in almost every enterprise the town 
supports. 

— Seattle Post-Intelligencer (j8g<f). 



PACIFIC STEAM WHALING CO. 

FOR 

CAPE 
NOME 

SAILING FROM SEATTLE AND CARRYING 
U. S. MAILS, 

A i STEAMERS: 

"JEAN1E," April 25th, " EXCELSIOR," April 30th, 

"VALENCIA," May 30th. 



The P. S. W. Co.'s steamers are sheeted with 
iron bark, and specially constructed to break ice, 
and will be the first steamers to reach Cape 
Nome. For freight or passage apply 

Pacific Steam Whaling Co., 

313 FIRST AVENUE SOUTH, SEATTLE, WASH. 
30 CALIFORNIA STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 



IF YOU WANT TO 
KNOW ANYTHING 
ABOUT CAPE NOME 

Write us and we will gladly answer your questions, 
giving you only the latest and such information as 
we know to be reliable. 

WHEN YOU START FOR NOME, 

Have your mail addressed in our care. You will 
receive it promptly while you are in Seattle, and it 
will be forwarded to you promptly after you start 
for the gold fields. 

ONLY ONE. 

There is only one Alaska supply house that is older 
than any other; whose knowledge of the needs of 
the Alaska prospector has been gained by supply- 
ing his needs for the past twenty-two years. 

It appears that our experience can be of use to 
you. It's yours for the asking. Write us freely 
for any information you may desire. 

WHEN YOU ARRIVE IN SEATTLE 

You will find us just a block from Union Depot. 
Make your headquarters with us ; you'll be wel- 
come. We will cheerfully furnish you with all 
information you desire, and consider you under no 
obligations to trade with us. 

The MacDougall & SouthwickCo., 

717-19-21-23 FIRST AVENUE, SEATTLE, WASH. 
487 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 



BACK FROM ROSSLAND. 

Mr. James Wardner is back from Rossland, 
and is stopping at the Windsor Hotel. Mr. 
Wardner, or "Jim," as he is affectionately 
called along the Pacific Coast, has had a won- 
derful experience in mining during the past 
thirty years. If he had a half hour to spare, he 
could tell more mining stories than would fill 
this paper. And these stories would be full of 
dramatic interest. There would be humor in 
them ; now and then there would be a dash of 
tragedy. Chiefly they would be brimming over 
with human nature. He knows all the cele- 
brated characters who have given piquancy to 
mining life in California or British Columbia. 
It was his good fortune to make friends with 
all classes of character he encountered, and he 
is regarded with the greatest affection by the 
miner and the prospector. " Jim " conforms to 
the uses of civilization with great gravity when 
he comes East. Out West he is one of the 
boys. He has been used to roughing it and 
rather likes it. Withal he has an eye like an 
eagle, and a judgment that is seldom at fault, 
and if Jim pronounces a favorable judgment on 
a property, you may invest your money. He is 
interested in several properties in British Co- 
lumbia, and it is to further these that he comes 
East so frequently. 

— Front Montreal Newspaper (mSqs). 



PABST 

MILWAUKEE 

BEER 

Excels all others 
Up to date. 



The Only Milwaukee Beer Sold 

in 

CAPE NOME. 



PACIFIC CLIPPER 
LINE. 



E. E. CAINE, President. 



Steamships : 

HUMBOLDT, CHAS. NELSON, 

CLEVELAND, GEO. W. DICKINSON, 

CZARINA, RESOLUTE. 



Steamers every Five Days during May and June, 

1900, for 

CAPE NOME and ST. MICHAELS. 

Reservations being made now. Secure your space. 



Regular Sailings for Skagway and San Francisco. 



General Offices: ARLINGTON DOCK, SEATTLE. 
City Office: 622 FIRST AVENUE, SEATTLE. 



James F. Wardner, or " Jim " Wardner, as 
he is known to mining men all over Amer- 
ica, arrived from the South last evening and 
is a guest at the Hotel Driard. His last 
mining investments have been in the Atlin 
country, from which he came recently to 
recuperate his health in California, and of 
which he predicts great things. He is usu- 
ally a good prophet, too, in mining matters, 
as witness the Kootenay of to-day, of which 
he was one of the earliest and most enthu- 
siastic pioneers. Besides being a good 
miner, operator and maker of new cities, 
"Jim" Wardner with his nerve has fur- 
nished material for many famous stories. 
The tale of Shaughnessy, Wardner and the 
pass has now been published in practically 
every paper of America, Hawaii, Australia, 
and the English press of the Orient, and at 
last advice it had been put into German and 
was doing duty in the Fatherland. 

— Victoria Colonist (March, i8qq). 



A 

Gold-saving Machine. 



IF you intend to mine you know that the 
loss entailed under the ordinary process 
of working placer deposits of gold varies 
from 20 to 50 per cent. Most of this can be 
SAVED. 

SWAIN'S IMPROVED 
GOLD AMALGAMATOR 

will do it. This fact has been demonstrated 
without a doubt. 

A dollar saved is a dollar earned. 

The machine will be sold outright to 
those who intend to work the beach or tundra 
sands of Alaska. 

Compact and portable. 

Investigate for yourself, or write to 

The Nome Gold Mining and 
Development Co., 

211-212 MUTUAL LIFE BUILDING, SEATTLE, WASH. 



Empire Line 



-TO- 



ST. MICHAEL, 
CAPE NOME, 



-AND- 



Yukon River 
Points. 



Largest and Best Steamships Sailing North* 

Tons. Passenger Capacity. 

S.S.OHIO 3»5oo 325 i st class 475 2d class 

S. S. PENNSYLVANIA 3,500 325 1st class 475 2d class 

S. S. INDIANA 3,500 325 1st class 475 2d class 

S. S. CONEMAUGH 2,500 50 1st class 400 2d class 

First Sailing from Seattle ~^ ^ / - N T T T >^ 
Direct for Cape Nome V. ^ { • ) M I • I 

On or About May 25, ° # 0# v/lllVy. 



Empire Transportation Co., 

607 FIRST AVE., SEATTLE, WASH. 

INTERNATIONAL NAVIGATION COMPANY, 

or any of its sub-agents in the United States, 

Canada or Europe. 



James F. Wardner and family go out 
this morning to remain permanently. 
Jim is one of the pioneers of the Hills, 
has always been in business and has 
always made friends. He is every inch 
a rustler and has done as much for the 
development of this country as any 
man in it. He has been prominently 
identified with many enterprises that 
have brought great wealth to the coun- 
try, and will return in the Spring with- 
out his family and organize and put in 
successful operation others. 

— Wardner (Idaho) News. 



THE 



"HOTEL NUNIVAK," 

NOME CITY, CAPE NOME DISTRICT, 
ALASKA. 



Operated by the Nunivak Hotel Co. 
T. C. Healv, General Manager. 



WILL OPEN ABOUT JUNE 15th. 
ONE HUNDRED ROOMS. 



LADIES' and GENTLEMEN'S GRILL ROOM, 

EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN PLAN. 



Electrically lighted throughout; telephone service 
connecting rooms with office. 



ROOMS SINGLE AND EN-SUITE, WITH BATH. 
Also the Best of Service. 



Hotel Marlborough, N. Y., 
February 1st, 1900. 

MR. STEVE BAILEY, 

Proprietor Hotel Northern, 

Headquarters for Cape Nome, 
Seattle, Wash.: 

Please reserve me room 125 for the month 
preceding the sailing of Sam Barber's slick steam- 
ship "ALPHA," which will leave Vancouver on 
April 10th, 1900. 

J. F. WARDNER. 



James F. Wardner again 
comes to the front in the 
big chloride mining deal, 
placing him in the front 
rank of the enterprising 
men of the period. That 
he is one of the most suc- 
cessful mining operators of 
the West, goes without say- 
ing. He has done much to 
further the interests of this 
great country, and his name 
will live in the history of 
Washington. 

— Helena Independent (/<?#). 



CAPE NOME FLYER LINE. 

Ocean-going Steamers every ten days 
for 

CAPE 

NOME 

and St. Michael 

DIRECT. 



First Sailing Date on or about APRIL ioth, 

1900. 



For Freight and Passenger Rates apply to 

Seattle Steamship Co., 

WHITE STAR DOCK, - - FOOT OF SPRING STREET, 

SEATTLE. 

Telephone, Main 528. 



S. S. ABERDEEN 

(BUILT IN 1899.) 

Capacity, 1,000 tons. Passenger accommodations, 220. 
All modern conveniences for comfort. 

POSITIVELY SAILING FROM TACOMA DIRECT 
FOR CAPE NOME 

10th MAY, 1900. 



This Company will have its own complete equipment 
for the safe and expeditious landing of passengers 
and cargo on arrival. 

For Freight and Passage apply to 

Alaska Transport Co., 

114 NINTH STREET, . - - TACOMA. 



Men unacquainted with Jim Ward- 
ner regard Col. Sellers as the typical 
American romancer ; but they who 
have been fortunate enough to brush 
up against Wardner's brilliant im- 
agination know that Sellers was 
quite ordinary in his line. Sellers 
soared in the clouds. Wardner rises 
above the fleeciest cirrus, tran- 
scends the airy cushion of the 
earth, and boldly floats in the ether 
of the Universe, and all this time, 
parodoxical as it may seem, he is 
down in the depths of the earth, 
shoveling out gold by the carload. 

— New York World. 



S.-Y. T. CO. 



ESTABLISHED 1897. 



TO CAPE NOME AND ST. MICHAEL 



New Steamer 

SANTA ANA 

Will Sail About MAY 20th, 1900. 

The Santa Ana is a fine, brand-new steamer, with 
first-class passenger accommodations. Capacity, 1,200 
tons freight, and a speed of 12 knots an hour. 

Str. LAKME 

Will Sail On or About MAY 15th, 1900, 

With Passengers and Freight. Both steamers connect at 
St. Michael with our river fleet, SEATTLE No. 1, SEAT- 
TLE No. 2, SEATTLE No. 3, ROCK ISLAND, for all 
Yukon River points. 

Reservations may now be made at the offices of 

Seattle- Yukon Transportation Co., 

90-92 COLUMBIA STREET, 

Or SANDER & HAYNES, Pioneer Square, 

SEATTLE. 



HO! 

FOR 

CAPE NOME. 

We will send the very first steamer from 
Seattle to Cape Nome in the Spring, and 
will have the first steamer reaching Cape 
Nome. We will make you a low rate on 
tickets and freight. Don't buy or con- 
tract before calling on or writing us. 
Reservations now being made 

SEATTLE & CAPE NOME 
TRANSPORTATION CO., 

Room 6i, Sullivan Block, 
SEATTLE. 

D. G. GRAMMAN, 

General Manager. 



i 



